The Stranger in Slytherin
by Kristin Campbell
Summary: There's a new girl in Slytherin and Draco and Harry can't keep their minds off of her-- neither can the Dark Lord (dum, dum, dum,) FINALLY A CHAPTER 19!
1. The Same New Thing

Disclaimer: Most of the characters belong to JK Rowling (wonderful woman, isn't she?) Kristin, however, belongs to me (because she's me) and her cat belongs to me (see reason before)  
  
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" I can't believe I'm going through with this," Kristin wrote in her journal. "I'm never going to fit in. Never mind getting on the train. I should have laid on the tracks. It would have been more productive." But the train from platform nine and three quarters and Kristin were already on their way to Hogwarts and there was nothing that could be done about it anymore.  
  
Kristin was surrounded by kids but still felt alone. Her journal was all she had. She didn't know anyone and had the feeling it was going to stay that way. She was never in a school long enough to make friends before she got kicked out. And what for? Accidentally frying a flock of chickens when trying to turn a feather into a match? Ha! Best barbecue this side of the Atlantic. There had been many more but she pushed them from her memory.  
  
She couldn't screw this one up. Hogwarts was the greatest wizardry school in the world, if she got kicked out of this one, it would be the end of her. Kristin shook with anxiety. She tried to relax and watch the scenery from her window but it didn't work. She just kept thinking about how humiliating it would be to get kicked out of Hogwarts for something stupid. She'd probably be the first one ever to knock Harry Potter off his broom. Nah! That's impossible! Finally she gave up staring out the window and started listening to the chat between the two boys in front of her. They were talking about the houses they wanted to live in.  
  
"I really want to be in Gryffindor. That's where Harry Potter lives. Then I could meet him and be best friends with the greatest wizard that ever lived."  
  
"Just because you meet him doesn't make him your best friend, stupid!" the other boy said. "Just as long as I'm not in Slytherin. They say You-Know- Who lived there when he was in Hogwarts."  
  
"Shh," the first boy scolded, "don't talk about him too loud. I heard he can hear you even when you don't say his name."  
  
Kristin stopped listening there. They were so wrong about Voldemort hearing anyone (unless he was in the room -or- you were trying to sneak out of the house). They were right about the houses though. That was the last thing Kristin needed; to be stuck in Slytherin. That wouldn't help her reputation. No. she needed a new start in a good house where no one knew who she was. Dumbledore would know but there was nothing she could do about that. She was born with that and it would never escape her.  
  
She could see her reflection in the window. Her hazel eyes betrayed her overactive nerves. She hoped no one else could notice it. Probably not. They wouldn't know if she was nervous or not. They probably wouldn't even know her name in three months. Maybe, that one girl who even Dumbledore himself couldn't reach out to. That screw up who even got kicked out of Hogwarts. People only got expelled from Hogwarts for deadly crimes.  
  
Finally the train stopped. Kristin was already in her robes, but she still wasn't ready for what awaited her. She sighed and ran a hand through her long brown hair before she filtered out of the train car into the room with the rest of new kids. They were all much younger than she was but not everyone had spent the past six years in eight different schools of witchcraft. The woman explained the procedure of house selection but Kristin didn't really pay attention, nothing could be worse than what she had already gone through. The group was led onto the stage. Kristin's body was shaking horribly under her robe. Great! Her fate would be decided in front of hundreds of kids. 'I sure hope nothing too much is said. I'd never live it down if they found out.'  
  
"Campbell, Kristin," she sighed heavily and audibly. "Here goes nothing" she said under her breath and sat down on the chair in front of the huge room of people watching her. The hall was huge. It was very beautiful and she looked at the blue cloudless sky portrayed on the ceiling. She saw Professor Dumbledore smiling at her and wondered if he looked that same way at her father so long ago. The old, battered hat was placed upon her head. It didn't take a while to decide her new fate as it had with the students before but quickly yelled its answer.  
  
"SLYTHERIN!" Kristin shuddered. Exactly what she was afraid of. She looked pleadingly at Professor Dumbledore but he smiled at her, not maliciously as she had been used to but a kind smile as if saying 'don't worry, dear. It's all for the best.' This made her shudder less but didn't ease the tension of being in the house of her father's legacy. It's not like she was using her real last name so her identity would be protected for a while.  
  
She strolled to her table trying to appear as if it didn't affect her, as if she wanted to be in Slytherin. She didn't need people saying that she thought she was too good for her house. If that is what the hat said. then that is what the hat said. It was her fate now. She sat at her table without a word- on her part and everyone else's- and watched the others be assigned to their tables. Neither of the two boys sitting in front of her made it to Gryffindor - one was in Ravenclaw, the other in Hufflepuff.  
  
Kristin picked at the food in front of her, without eating much of it. She couldn't eat while thinking about what could happen. Her first class was potions with Gryffindor. 'Great! My first chance is the premiere opportunity to blow something up. sixth year potions. Just wonderful.'  
  
She left the feast early and walked around what would be her new school and home. Everything seemed harmless enough. until she could get a hold of it. Once put in Kristin's hand; any item became a hazardous weapon. She couldn't control her magic. Sure she was a sixth year but she never understood how to control her powers. Everything she tried seemed to be executed ten fold.  
  
"'I can't believe they sent me here' she continued to tell herself. 'This is a place for wonderful witches not for someone who can't even keep her bedroom from burning down every time she wants to turn on a light.' Dumbledore must have one amazing plan.  
  
Finally a bell interrupted her wanderings. Time to go blow another place up.  
  
------  
  
"Time to get partners," Professor Snape announced. Kristin just sat and waited to be the last one left, as always. No one had talked to her the entire time she had been here. She'd made an effort a couple times but no response to be had. "Potter! Don't have a partner? Big surprise. How about Miss Campbell? Did I say that right?" Kristin nodded. "Do you have a partner?"  
  
"No, sir," Kristin replied.  
  
"Ah, polite young lady. I'm sorry but you'll have to partner with Mr. Harry Potter."  
  
"Yes, sir." She looked up at her new lab partner. She had never seen Harry Potter before, just read about him in books and such. He really was a striking character in person. He had beautiful dark hair and the most piercing green eyes. "Hello," she greeted.  
  
"Hi," Harry Potter took a seat next to her. She couldn't keep her eyes off of him. She'd never seen a celebrity before. She wasn't sure whether she liked him or not. She was not so sure about his past experiences. She looked up back into his eyes and he met his gaze. It was a deep, powerful glare that she couldn't shake -and- didn't want to shake.  
  
"Well," she started nervously, locked in his eyes, "should we begin?"  
  
"I suppose we should," Harry replied. He broke their gaze to start filling a vial with pixie saliva. "Do you want to handle this?" He handed her another vial and some unicorn horn shavings.  
  
"I really shouldn't." she pushed it away. He looked at her puzzledly. "I'm really not good at this," she answered his unspoken question. I always end up killing something helpless."  
  
"I can help you through it," Harry wrapped his arms around her from behind and guided her hands through the steps for the potion. He whispered key spell words and many other unrelated things into her ears. Kristin smiled though it all. She smiled until she heard and saw the explosion take place on the table in front of her. 


	2. A Gryffindor Punk and a Slytherin Dame

Disclaimer- everything except my cat (who you haven't met yet), my plot, and myself. belong to me. the rest is the property of the lovely JKR  
  
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"Potter, I can't believe you. Six years of teaching you and you blow up my classroom!" A knock interrupted Professor Snape. "Come in." he yelled.  
  
"Sir," Kristin's voice echoed throughout the room. "Please excuse Harry. It was my fault the table blew up. I've never been any good at potions." She stared pleadingly into the professor's face. Her normally hazel eyes flickered in clouds of a fiery bright green. Professor Snape seemed slightly startled for a moment but quickly returned to normal.  
  
"Mr. Potter, you are excused," Harry left the room. "I didn't know it was you. Professor Dumbledore spoke slightly of it to all the teachers but never said who it was." He was about to go on but stopped himself. "Why don't you go see your friends between classes? I won't keep you any longer."  
  
"It's really alright, sir. I don't have any friends."  
  
"Well, you had better start making some because if I have anything to do with it, you'll be here for the next couple years. I wouldn't want you to have to go it alone." His stern features, softened a little.  
  
"Thank you, sir." Kristin grabbed her books and started to walk to the door of the large, dark dungeon classroom.  
  
"Oh," he started, "we can forget about the table, alright?" Professor Snape smiled an accepting smile her way. Kristin smiled back and went on her way.  
  
She had just turned out of the door when a figure startled her. She jumped back against the cold stone wall before she noticed Harry Potter's bright green eyes staring back at her. She would move away from the wall but Harry was so close. She could feel his warm breath on her face.  
  
"Thanks for standing up for me," he whispered. Harry loomed over her.  
  
"Well, it wasn't your fault. Why should you get yelled at?" Kristin struggled to keep her cool. Her heart was fluttering. She didn't know why he was so close but she didn't mind.  
  
"But it was still pretty cool!" He smiled softly. Slowly he leaned even closer to her and kissed her. The sweet taste of his mouth mingled with hers. She dropped her books and wrapped her arms around him. Harry pulled her closer while she toyed with his dark, messy hair. He moved his hands down her back and -- and groaned as the bell warning them that there were only four more minutes to get to their next classes. Harry pulled away reluctantly and bent down to pick up Kristin's books. She giggled lightly.  
  
"How do I get to McGonagall's classroom?" she asked lightly.  
  
"I'll show you." Harry held out his arm to escort Kristin up the stairs. She accepted it and strolled with him to her next class.  
  
"Here it is," he stopped at a door, leading to a class packed with Slytherins and Hufflepuffs.  
  
"You're going to be late to your next class." Kristin smiled at him.  
  
"I know."  
  
"Thank you, Harry Potter." She gave him a light peck on the lips and bobbed into her class.  
  
'This was definitely a good day,' Kristin thought to herself. 'A wonderful start if I say so myself.  
  
---------  
  
"Why! Hello, Harry Potter." Kristin smiled at the tall young gentleman waiting for her outside the classroom. She quickly turned her happy face into one of mock disapproval. "Did you leave class early to walk me from class to class?"  
  
"So?" he replied sweetly. He laughed, "no, not really. You just took a long time to get out of class. Are you trying to become teacher's pet?"  
  
She smiled at him coyly. "You have no idea."  
  
"You're not sleeping with them are you?"  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because I tried it. It doesn't work."  
  
They both laughed and she kissed him softly on the cheek.  
  
"Sorry to break it to you, dear," she said while she was walking, "but I know where I'm going this time. So you really don't have a job. Now you have to explain why you're following me around."  
  
"I'm watching out for you. Hogwarts can be a dangerous place for a pretty girl who blows up tables." Harry smiled at her mischievously.  
  
"Well, Harry Potter," she replied, "not any more dangerous for me than for boys who mess with a girl who blows up tables." Kristin swiftly walked away, her hips moving noticeably under her robe, leaving Harry with a couple of things to think about-- or dream about.  
  
----------  
  
"Hi," someone greeted Kristin at lunch. "Can you move over? You're in my seat." She looked up and saw the gray eyes of Draco Malfoy staring at her expectantly. She didn't know him personally but she had him in every class and she was very attentive.  
  
"Hello, Draco Malfoy," Kristin replied sweetly. "I'm really sorry. I'm new and I just didn't know that. you know. I was supposed to,. you know,. give a damn."  
  
"I hope you don't expect to make friends with that attitude." Malfoy said harshly.  
  
"Yeah," she retorted, "I see it didn't work for you either. I should get a new plan then, eh?"  
  
"You should. You can start by getting out of my seat," he growled.  
  
"Malfoy, leave her alone!" Kristin turned to see it was Harry challenging Draco Malfoy.  
  
"Potter, stay out of this!" Harry took a step closer. "What is she your girlfriend?" they both looked pleadingly at her.  
  
"As a matter of fact," Kristin started, "I am. Harry Potter and I are a couple."  
  
"Why?" Malfoy groaned, "A Slytherin dame like yourself dating a Gryffindor punk like Harry Potter."  
  
"I happen to be very fond of a Gryffindor 'punk' like Harry Potter." She got up. "There you go, Draco Malfoy. Have your precious seat. I'll see you in Slytherin." Kristin turned to Harry. "Well, Harry Potter would you like to accompany me to the library. I have some things to catch up on." She licked her teeth provocatively and walked away, with her hips swaying to second the notion. 


	3. Unknown but Obtrusive

"So, you wanted to talk to me?" Harry asked Kristin walking into the library.  
  
"Be patient, Harry Potter," she replied softly, leading him deeper and deeper into the room. There were books as far and tall as either could see. She began to wonder if the room ever ended until she and Harry finally reached the back wall. There, she grabbed him, pushed him against the wall, and pressed her lips to his. Harry responded by pulling her closer to him. She felt a tingling sensation down to her toes. She had never been kissed like this before, even if she was the one who kissed him. She had barely had friends and a boyfriend was out of the question. Now hear was this boy who liked her. maybe. She pulled away.  
  
"What's wrong?" he asked.  
  
"Well, I actually did want to talk to you about something." She gazed into his beautiful green eyes and brushed the hair away from them. But then her eyes focused on the scar on his forehead. "Is that the scar you got from."  
  
"Yeah," he said softly. There was a pause. "Is that what you wanted to talk about?"  
  
"No," she replied but her head was somewhere else. 'Where do you go?' he wondered at the enigma in his arms. He didn't know anything about her and yet he was so attracted to her. That was probably why. Harry always loved a mystery and he had a feeling she would always be one to him.  
  
"Well, there was something I wanted to talk about," he added, trying to get the conversation going again. Kristin looked up at him inquisitively. "You know what you told Malfoy about us today?" Kristin nodded slightly. "Could we make it reality?"  
  
A troubled expression spread across Kristin's face.  
  
"I don't think so, Harry Potter. I'm sorry I got you involved of all this." She walked away, leaving Harry in a daze. 'Where do you go?' he wondered again.  
  
------  
  
Kristin walked from the library until she reached the hall when she started running as fast as she could to Slytherin. Tears ran down her cheeks as she climbed the stairs to her room. She buried her head in her pillow and cried.  
  
It wasn't long before she realized that lunch would soon be over and she would have to get back to class. This one was "History of Magic" and she wasn't looking forward to it. She hated history and she didn't want to be seen like this. She splashed her face with cold water in the bathroom sink and got her things together to go to class.  
  
She rushed out of Slytherin knowing she would be late and would do anything just to stay in this school. Her head filled with thoughts of Harry, the scar, Voldemort.  
  
"Watch where you're going, Campbell," Malfoy snarled at her. "You're a klutz and a bitch. You've got nothing going for you, have you?" His eyes searched her for a reaction. If he was lucky, it would be a painful one.  
  
"Watch it, Draco Malfoy, or you'll end up like that table." She picked up her books quickly and headed off to class. "What? Are you running to tell your boyfriend Potter?"  
  
"No." she replied bitterly. "No matter how klutzy I am, I don't need help to win a fight. You speak for yourself." She walked away as fast as she could to avoid more of a conflict.  
  
'That's the last thing I need today. Harry probably hates me. Draco hates me. And it's not like I have any other friends around here anyway.  
  
"Kristin!" she heard her name and turned to see a girl trying to get her attention. She was in potions with Kristin but wasn't from Slytherin. "Kristin, wait!" The girl finally caught up with her. "Hi, I'm Hermoine Granger. I'm a friend of Harry's."  
  
"I'm sorry." Kristin figured she wanted an answer to that conflict with Harry. News gets around fast, doesn't it.  
  
"Huh? I just wanted to know if you'd meet me after school by the Quidditch field. I have to go right now. I'm going to be late for class."  
  
"I'll see you there." Now what? Could her day get any worse? Everything was going to be so perfect here at Hogwarts. Not a care in the world. Right?  
  
------  
  
Kristin finally settled into her History of Magic class. There was an empty seat next to her and class was about to begin. She sighed with relief. She was not in the mood to put anymore or anyone right now. Not after that run in with Draco and that whole stint with Harry. And Hermoine. What hell would she give Kristin about what happened with Harry? Kristin had seen the look on his face. He looked hurt. He wasn't expecting her to say no. Not after she told Draco that they were together. 'I guess he really did like me.'  
  
And after that kiss.  
  
That amazing kiss. Kristin had never felt so invigorated in her right. She had never kissed anyone that way before and he kissed back. At least, this time, she was ready. Back in the hallway she didn't know what to do or how to act, so she just did what she always saw in the movies. Boy, his hair was so soft!  
  
"Stop daydreaming, Campbell," came the voice next to her. She as she was told (without any other choice, really) and looked over to see Draco Malfoy sitting next to her. "Your little mood swing in the hall back there almost made me late. I didn't even get to pick where I wanted to sit and now I'm stuck with you all year. Way to go!"  
  
A solitary tear fell down her cheek. Kristin struggled to hold it back but it escaped. She turned the other way before, she hoped, Draco saw it. She hated it when people saw her cry, especially Malfoy. He would probably get so much satisfaction from it, knowing he was strong enough to make a girl cry.  
  
"I didn't mean to make you cry, Kristin. It was just a joke. I'm sorry," Draco's voice was soft and gentle, not the bitter snarl she had grown accustomed to over the course of the day. Kristin looked at him warily. 'Did Draco Malfoy just apologize to me?'  
  
"Ok, class. Take out your books," the teacher called, leaving Kristin to wonder about this possible revelation into the mind of Draco Malfoy. 


	4. Eyes of Silver and Green

A/N- In case anyone is wondering, when a phrase is surrounded by '-' instead of "-" it means that someone is thinking.  
  
PS. Alex, you rock, I don't know where this story would be without you. What can I say? You got me hooked  
  
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"Kristin, I'm so glad you came!" Hermoine greeted her. She was standing with Ron Weasley outside the Quidditch field where she had told Kristin to meet her.  
  
"Hi, Hermoine. Hi, Ron. Why wouldn't I come?"  
  
"Because I just talked to Harry about what happened at lunch, so we were worried that maybe you thought we were going to harass you."  
  
"You're not?"  
  
"No," Hermoine replied. "Ron and I kept hearing so much about you and thought we should be the first ones to know you but I guess Harry beat us to it."  
  
"Harry talks about me?" Kristin asked hopefully. She was seriously reconsidering her previous decision. No. She couldn't. Harry would just have to accept that. Maybe she should try first.  
  
"Yeah, mostly Harry. But lots from other people, too. No one seem to know anything about you." Ron answered.  
  
"So, what's your story?' Hermoine finished.  
  
"Story?" Kristin smiled. "I don't have a story."  
  
"Well," Ron offered. "Where do you come from?"  
  
"Paris, France," she answered, thinking about how much she hated questions about herself.  
  
"What about your parents? What were they like?"  
  
"I don't know." Ron and Hermoine looked at her puzzledly. "They both died when I was very young. So, I don't know.. Listen. I'm sorry. but. I should get going. I have to have a talk with Professor Snape about that little table incident," Kristin grasped for an excuse to free herself from the interrogation. Ron and Hermoine seemed nice enough but not when they were bugging her about her parents. She hated when people brought up her childhood. It sucked and that was all there was to it.  
  
Kristin spun around to leave but found herself blocked. She turned her gaze upwards into a pair of dazzling green eyes.  
  
"Hi, Harry Potter," she said softly. 'This could get awkward.'  
  
"Kristin," he acknowledged her. "I see you've met Ron and Hermoine."  
  
"Yeah," she replied not back away from him. They were the same distance apart as they were before that first kiss and Kristin could almost feel the pull of her lips to his, but she resisted. No, she wouldn't do that to him- or herself. She excused herself politely with the same reason she gave Ron and Hermoine.  
  
'Ok,' she thought,'so it did get awkward.'  
  
-----  
  
"Sir," Kristin called, walking into Snape's room. "Professor Snape, are you here?" The room was empty. She took a seat in the chair behind the desk. She did some History of Magic homework. She couldn't blow anything up doing a worksheet. She looked at her Defense against the Dark Arts homework. This was going to come in handy.  
  
"Kristin, she heard softly. Kristin looked up to see who was there.  
  
No one.  
  
"Hello?" she called back.  
  
"Kristin." She looked toward the sound. She noticed a candle on the counter top. "Kristin." The flame on the candle flickered as the voice flickered. Wait! That flame is green!  
  
"Come here, Kristin."  
  
The flame flickered once again.  
  
She walked towards the candle until she met it at the counter. Kristin stared at it intently. She knew that shade of green and started to back up slowly.  
  
All of a sudden the flame erupted. She screamed and fell backwards. Professor Snape rushed it and the flame extinguished except for the small ordinary orange flicker on top of an ordinary candle.  
  
"Kristin, what is going on?" he screamed.  
  
"Sir," she said, sobbing. Her hands and face burned. "I- I- I- "  
  
"Explain later. Let's get down to Madam Pomfrey. Those burns look pretty bad."  
  
He took her by the shoulders. Kristin followed obediently, crying. The tears stung her scorched cheeks. They finally made it to Madam Pomfrey's office.  
  
"Oh! Dear!" she fussed at Kristin's arrival, "Come with me."  
  
------  
  
Kristin lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. 'What happened?' she wondered. That green flame. She wouldn't let it get to her. She had to forget it all.  
  
"How are you feeling?" Professor Snape opened the door. "Ms. Pomfrey said that you blacked out once." He sat in the chair next to her bed. "What did you do?"  
  
"I'm not sure," Kristin answered, "the candle. It was so strange. It was kind of hypnotizing. I just heard it calling me."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"The flame. It was calling my name. It told me to come to it. But it wasn't orange, it was green."  
  
"Green?"  
  
"Yes. Green. And it flickered when it talked."  
  
"Kind of sounds like." Snape trailed off.  
  
"Yeah," Kristin answered sensing what he meant. "I know. Are you as afraid as I am?" she whispered. Professor Snape nodded. There was really nothing more he could do but sigh. 'This poor girl,' he thought, 'finally gets somewhere she can call home and he follows her. I wonder if this has happened at the other schools.' He sat for a while before he wished her well. "Poppy says that since they are caused by magic, your burns won't scar. And you should be out of here in a week." He added before he walked out the door. Kristin groaned.  
  
"A week!?!" she sunk down in the bed and rolled her eyes. "I can't be out a week."  
  
"I'll help you with your homework if you want." Professor Snape sighed. "You don't need this. Not now. Now get some rest, alright?" He made it all the way through the door leaving Kristin in her room alone.  
  
'At least I'll have help,' she thought. 'Scars. I wonder what I look like right now anyway. This sucks. A lot. I don't want to be trapped her for a week.'  
  
"Campbell, what did you do now?" Draco walked in uninvited.  
  
"Don't you knock, Draco Malfoy?" She yelled. "How did you get in here. I was told I need rest."  
  
"Madam Pomfrey let me in, so don't lie to me. So what did you do?"  
  
"I didn't do anything. Did you just come to antagonize me?"  
  
"Kind of. Wow! You look like crap!" There were no bandages on Kristin's face because they were magic burns and were being treated as such. Bandages did no good on this kind of burn. But it left the red and blistered skin open for all visitors- even unwelcome ones- to see. Kristin would be here until they were gone which meant they were completely healed. Magic burns could be fatal if she were to leave the nurse's room and take care of them herself.  
  
"At least these will go away. You'll always be ugly." Kristin retorted. Sure, she lied, but she thought it was a pretty good comeback anyway. She couldn't use the ugly comments in front of other people because everyone in Hogwarts- even Kristin- knew that Draco was quite attractive whether they liked to admit it. Usually, they didn't like to admit it, especially the girls from Gryffindor.  
  
To her surprise, Draco laughed. Not scornfully, like when he made fun of other people, but like he genuinely thought something was funny.  
  
"That was a pretty good one, Kristin. You know, you're not as bad as I thought you were." He sat down on the side of her bed and smiled at her. "So, really, what happened to you?"  
  
"Long story."  
  
"From what Madam Pomfrey says, you have a long time and I'm not going anywhere." He looked in her eyes. She never truly noticed the warm, light green flecks in his cool silver eyes. They leant a human quality to his inhuman demeanor.  
  
"When I said 'long story', I was referring to how much I don't want to tell you."  
  
"Oh, come on," he lowered his head a little to give her a set of puppy eyes.  
  
"It won't work on me, Draco Malfoy," she said, seriously. This was not a secret that puppy eyes could coax from her. She gave him 'the look' to let him know that she meant business. Draco understood and stopped the charade of innocence. "So, what did you really come down here for?"  
  
"To see what you blew up now," he grinned at her in jest. "No, really. I wanted to know if you were all right. I saw you crying in History of Magic and I wanted to make sure you knew how sorry I was."  
  
"Draco Malfoy? Apologizing? Hmmm. Why should I believe you?" Kristin asked, skeptically. She didn't know Malfoy that well -no one did- but this just wasn't acting like himself. The Draco everyone knew was cruel, conniving, calculating to the end and here he was apologizing? It just didn't seem right.  
  
"Because I mean it." He took her hand in his and gazed into her cloudy hazel eyes. 'What secrets are those clouds covering?' he wondered silently. He found himself wanting to know everything. 'Just because she told me that she didn't give a damn if she was in my seat. You're going soft, Draco.'  
  
"Since when?" she replied coldly. There was a slight pause before she took her hand back swiftly. Maybe she just realized what was happening -or realizing that she wasn't supposed to like it. He hoped dearly for the second one. He truly wanted her to like him. He didn't know why but there was something about this new girl that intrigued him. Maybe it was the air of mystery that she exuded more and more with every word she spoke, every move she made, every breath she took. Maybe it was the energy with which she countered his attacks, defended herself against his malice. It could be the girl that showed someone else to the world -the way he did- to elude the prying tendencies of the Hogwarts residents (students and teachers alike).  
  
"I've meant it since I saw you crying." He told her. 'He seems sincere enough.' Kristin thought. Silver eyes met hers in a gaze she had never shared before- except Harry. She thought back on him. 'Where is he? If Draco found out, why doesn't Harry know that I'm here?' His green eyes entrenched their image in her mind and imagination.  
  
She envisioned him exploring her psyche with those eyes. He would kiss her softly and his hands would trail through her hair down her back and under her shirt, the feeling of his soft hands against her bare skin causing her to tremble slightly. He would lift her shirt over her head, pausing only slightly for one last kiss before removing the clothing completely from her top. The bra clasp would cause him a slight problem that would make them both chuckle softly without removing their lips from each other. She could feel his soft hair in her hands just thinking about it.  
  
"I just couldn't stand to see you cry," Draco continued, tearing into Kristin's fantasies with his low and gentle voice. She couldn't decide which was more tantalizing -the way she felt with Harry or the way Draco was talking to her right now. "You seem so strong and just to know that I broke you was horrifying. Your spirit has an amazing fire to it and it would almost kill me to know that I have extinguished it. So, please, tell me it wasn't my fault."  
  
"It wasn't your fault," she replied, not automatically as Draco had expected but with complete sincerity. "Harry and I are going through a moment."  
  
"What kind of moment?" Draco asked. 'Oh, yeah, Harry.' He thought. 'Why can't Potter stay away from anything?'  
  
"We're not really going out?" she confessed, not sure why she was telling him anything. "I just told you that to shut you up. So when we went to the library, he asked me if we could make it a reality."  
  
"And?"  
  
"And I turned him down."  
  
Draco's heart skipped a beat. Did he just hear her right? She turned him down?  
  
"Why?"  
  
"I have my reasons."  
  
"Oh," he acknowledged quietly. Another question dodged. She was getting pretty good at that. If she was anything like him, it became habit by the time she was old enough to be a first year. But, why? What was she hiding? He knew his past. His secrets. now it was time to find hers.  
  
"So." she started, not quite knowing where to go with the statement, just knowing she had to get off the subject of Harry Potter before she let someone know how she felt and decided to screw everything and go out with him. "How did you find out I was here anyway?"  
  
"Snape," he answered, slightly disappointed that she didn't go on about what was in her head.  
  
"He told me he wouldn't tell anyone."  
  
"Yeah," he agreed, somewhat half-heartedly "but I'm his second favorite student." He smiled at her.  
  
"Second? Your only second best?"  
  
"Yeah. I was first, until." he trailed off.  
  
"Until." she prodded, eagerly.  
  
"Until you showed up?"  
  
"Me?" She was genuinely surprised.  
  
"Yeah, you, don't be so shocked."  
  
"But I've only been here a day."  
  
"I know. but for some odd reason, he likes you."  
  
Kristin stuck her tongue out at him jokingly. Draco made a face back. They laughed and went back to conversation. 


	5. Blame it on the girl? Maybe not

Alrighty. here's chapter 5 (exciting, eh?) I would greatly appreciate if I could get a couple reveiws, (pretty please). Foxy, you rock!  
  
Disclaimer: I still own me and my cat and the plot. But that's all for now. maybe I'll add some more of my own stuff later, but until then. all is JKRowlings.  
  
---------  
  
The week passed quickly. Too quickly for Kristin and Draco who were just as quickly beginning to sincerely enjoy each other's company. The boy came to visit her daily: between classes, during feasts. He even missed a class until Madam Pomfrey came in and chased him away. Kristin was surprised that the nurse was letting Draco see her so much. Madam Pomfrey was usually all for leaving a patient alone to get his or her rest.  
  
But, for some reason or another, Draco was there, every waking hour that classes would allow him. He helped her with the homework that Snape dropped off with a few dire consequences that caused Draco to be shooed away a time or two.  
  
Overall, however, it was the best week of his life. He was used to the cruelty of his father or the stupidity of Crabbe and Goyle or the outright flirting from Pansy. But with Kristin all was different.  
  
Kristin was very sweet to him, all the time, even when everyone was against him. Potter, Granger, Weasley, the entire three houses of Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and HufflePuff, his father. the list went on. But Kristin saw through it all. And she was so bright. She knew things that Draco didn't. She was eager to learn about the things that he knew but she didn't. Her mind was always working and her eyes truly lit up when she was learning new things. He didn't see that often from her. She didn't laugh and smile much, much more now than in the beginning of the week, and her eyes were often sad and lonely. Draco could never quite figure out what she was thinking.  
  
"I get to go to class tomorrow," Kristin beamed. There was the eager excitement in her eyes that he noticed before.  
  
"That's awesome," he replied, smiling. She'll finally be in my classes, he thought.  
  
"Yeah. Madam Pomfrey said that my burns should be healed by tonight. So I'll spend the night here and then go to class tomorrow morning."  
  
"Kristin," Draco started, suddenly quiet and solemn, "how'd you get those burns anyway?"  
  
"Just an accident. It was nothing."  
  
Another question that she blew off. She is getting really good at this, he reflected. * * * ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -----  
  
"What are you doing here?" Professor Snape asked Draco. "Shouldn't you be visiting Kristin?"  
  
"I got kicked out after Kristin turned herself magenta trying to do her charms homework."  
  
"How is she doing?"  
  
"I don't know," Draco confessed, "she does everything right but is all seems to happen times twelve."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"Like, the other day, we were doing your potions assignment on making things levitate. I watched her vigilantly," He paused there, with a slight smile and a flicker in his cool gray eyes, letting his countenance tell Snape that he didn't mind. "She did everything correct and we fed it to her cat, Orion. But instead of just hovering over the table the ways they did in class, Orion went soaring out of the room."  
  
"Well, Draco, that girl has got a lot of magic in her blood, even if her mother was a muggle," Draco looked slightly surprised at that. "And that is a lot of magic that has gone unchecked for the past sixteen years. I think if we had gotten a hold of her when she was a first year, then we could have taught her to control it."  
  
"But she's been to another school, right? She's been taught magic for the past five years."  
  
"Not really. Why do you think she has ended up at Hogwarts?" Draco looked intrigued. "Imagine sending"- (Snape shuddered at the thought) -"Potter or Tom Riddle to Eton. They don't have the resources to handle that sort of magic."  
  
"But you're not really comparing Kristin to Riddle, are you?" Draco asked worried. There was no way the girl he had adored for the past week could be a disciple of the Dark Lord. It was the same Dark Lord his dad followed, but there was no way Draco would stray that way. He didn't know whether it was because he didn't believe in the cause or just didn't want to worship anyone. It didn't matter, really. But he just didn't want to see a girl as great as Kristin turn to the Dark Arts, especially with the unchecked power she held.  
  
"I AM comparing Kristin to Tom Riddle," Snape confessed, making Draco grimace, "The only differences between Kristin and her-Tom are their principles and the fact that Kristin has been untrained for most of her life."  
  
"But the school, why didn't they transfer her here before?"  
  
"They never transferred her here. They kicked her out. They couldn't handle her power. He lowered her voice slightly, as though meaning his next comment only for himself. "You think after eight schools"-  
  
"EIGHT!?" Draco exclaimed, "Hogwarts is her eight school."  
  
"No," Snape replied calmly, "It's her ninth."  
  
"The poor girl," Draco shook his head, "No wonder she doesn't talk about any of her old friends."  
  
"She was never in one place long enough to make any."  
  
"Professor?"  
  
"Yes, Mr. Malfoy."  
  
"What happens if Hogwarts doesn't work for her either," Draco had a pleading look in his eyes.  
  
Professor Snape just smiled.  
  
"We're going to make it work for her."  
  
"But, how?"  
  
"Well, you and I can keep helping her homework. And Dumbledore knows her situation. I don't think he would kick her out anyway."  
  
"Yeah," Draco laughed, "look at Longbottom." Snape joined his laughter.  
  
"See?" Snape assured, "Kristin will be alright." 


	6. No, Harry Its not

"Wake up, Sleepyhead."  
  
Kristin awoke with a start to see Malfoy standing over her bed, smiling. He had is his hands some clothes and a black robe draped over his arm.  
  
"Don't ever do that again," she yelled groggily, throwing a pillow at him.  
  
"Sorry, dear, but you actually have to wake up and do work today." He gestured to his arm with the robe. "I thought you may want to wear some clothes to class, so here. Pansy was going to get some for me but then I looked at what she wore and thought it was best for me to do it."  
  
"Wearing clothes? What a strange idea!" Kristin joked. "Thanks, though, for not leaving up to Pansy to do it. I'd be wearing plaid and polka dots. However, I have to ask, how's you get into my room?"  
  
"I sneaked," he smiled again, this time mischievously.  
  
" I don't know if I like the idea of you sneaking into my room."  
  
"You'd better get used to it."  
  
"What do you mean by that?" she laughed, shocked by his nerve- and his gorgeous smile.  
  
"Well, if you're going to keep blowing yourself up like this, someone has got to take care of you and Potter can't get into Slytherin alive or without the password. So, I guess it's me."  
  
"Ok," she smiled back, "as long as you're not, like, sneaking into my room and stealing my stuff and watching me sleep."  
  
"Oh. See, now, I thought those would be my perks for bringing you matching clothes."  
  
Kristin simply glared at him, jokingly. There were green glints in his eyes that she noticed showed up when he was happy or smiling. That was a set of truly gorgeous eyes. There was a lot behind them that he wasn't telling her- or anyone for that matter. She longed to decipher him but avoided asking him anything personal. Strangely enough, he didn't ask her anything either. Perhaps they realized that there were secrets lurking in the depths of each other's souls that neither wanted exposed. Or maybe, simply, they remembered how much they hated being asked about themselves and strove to bestow that same courtesy on each other.  
  
"I don't think that it's that good of a perk." She replied. "And I do believe you are getting ripped off."  
  
"Well, what do you think a proper reward would be?" He asked, sitting on her bedside.  
  
"I don't know but watching me sleep and stealing my stuff would be really unexciting, seeing as I don't talk in my sleep or own anything interesting."  
  
"True. You are rather boring." He smiled at her once more and threw the clothes to her. "Now get dressed and go to class, you slacker."  
  
"Better than being a prat like you." He remained seated until she shooed him out so that she could change.  
  
----  
  
When Kristin was showered and changed, she opened the door and walked (finally) out of the infirmary. She started to walk towards potions when she thought about her books. She paused, sighed heavily, then spun on her heel to go get them.  
  
"Missing something?" Draco was suddenly standing right in front of her. He looked down at her and she tilted her head upward to stare into those beautiful, steel gray eyes. She'd never been this close to him before and wasn't aware that it could be this weakening. She struggled to breathe normally as to not let him realize the weakness in her knees and arms. Her mouth went dry as she struggled to speak.  
  
"Don't sneak up on me like that, Draco Malfoy," she chided. "You know how anxious I get and you don't want me to get startled and blow you up too." She wanted to yell at him for startling her like she always did when he sneaked up on her, but she couldn't. It was even hard, just to talk. So she simply let her disapproval show in her voice.  
  
"I'm sorry, dear," he addressed her as always. 'Good Gods she is beautiful!' He never noticed how her normally hazel eyes seemed to glow with flecks of green. It was a bright green and seemed to light her pupils on fire.  
  
"My books, please, good sir," she reminded him. It took her a little to remember why he had sneaked up behind her to begin with. He pulled away a little, to Kristin's disappointment, to get the books she had forgotten in the infirmary. She took her books from him and he held out his arm to escort her to potions. She accepted with a smile and they walked to Snape's classroom in the large dungeon.  
  
Professor Snape smiled on seeing her enter, alive and healthy, and beckoned her to his desk. She unenthusiastically released Draco's arm and obeyed his request.  
  
"Yes, sir," she greeted, smiling at his obvious pleasure at her attendance.  
  
"I'm glad to see you are well, Miss Campbell," he greeted.  
  
"Thank you."  
  
"I do have one worry about you, Kristin."  
  
She listened attentively.  
  
"Are you sure you're alright in here? I mean, I don't want you to be terrified that something will happen again throughout the entire class. No offense, but you need to concentrate as much as possible on your assignments."  
  
"Yes, sir. I'm fine. Thank you for your concern, but I know it wasn't the room. I've learned from past experiences that it really doesn't matter where I am. If he wants to get me, he will."  
  
"I'm very sorry that you had to learn that." He looked sympathetically at her. "You may have a seat."  
  
"Thank you, sir."  
  
She took her place at the table and pulled out her books. She only messed up two out of the five Potions assignments that Professor Snape had given her over the past week, so she was getting a little more confident.  
  
"Uh, hi, Kristin," she heard a voice behind her. She immediately recognized it without looking back.  
  
"Hello, Harry Potter," she replied softly, still not looking at him. She was afraid to look, knowing that, if she did, all her feelings and desires would come rushing back at her.  
  
"Is that how it's going to be, Kristin?" said a very wounded Harry.  
  
"No, Harry, it's not," she finally turned around.  
  
Her intuition was right. Upon seeing Harry's emerald green eyes and jet black tousled hair, she instantly wanted him, right there and then. All the dreams and fantasies she'd had about what they could do if they were alone came rushing back to her and, for more than a brief moment, Kristin didn't care if they weren't.  
  
But self-control came back to her after seeing the pain his eyes. Somehow, she knew it was her fault. Her feelings of lust changed to regret. Suddenly, instead of wanting to press him to the table and rip off his robes, she just wanted to hold him. Her heart longed to tell him everything: that she really did have feelings for him, that she would love to make the lie she told Draco the truth, that everything would be alright.  
  
But her mind stopped her. Her head knew there would be, most likely, dire consequences to a union between Kristin and the boy-who-lived.  
  
So, after a long pause, she simply gave fun a sympathetic smile and closed her eyes slightly to stop the tears welling in them. She took a deep breath and turned around.  
  
"Ok, today..." Professor Snape began his class with worried at Kristin.  
  
------  
  
"No, Harry, it's not," Harry heard Kristin. She finally turned around to face him and he saw the pain in her gorgeous hazel eyes. That stifled any smile he was going to show her. 'I hope I'm not what hurt her so much' he thought gently before a not-as-nice voice in his head made (though he hated to admit it) a rather good point. 'She turned you down, remember? It's her own fault she's upset.'  
  
Harry quickly pushed away that thought. For whatever reasons Kristin turned him down, she must have thought them good ones, especially if it's going to upset her this much.  
  
He focused on her again. He so much wanted to hold her and run his fingers through her beautiful light brown hair and tell her that everything was ok. Then, maybe, if she agreed with him, he wanted to do more to her.  
  
He saw her smile and wanted to think of something to say to her when Snape got up from his chair.  
  
"Ok, today..." he started.  
  
------  
  
"No, Harry, it's not," Draco heard from his seat two tables behind Kristin and her Potions partner, the infamous, Harry Potter. 'Oh no,' he thought, 'she's falling for that prat again. Gods, what am I going to do?' He could never win, could he? He finally found someone he could relate to, who understood him for who he was and Potter had to come and take her away.  
  
Draco watched her smile at Harry. Why couldn't she smile at him like that? 'Draco, you're an idiot!' his mind scolded, 'You noticed her as soon as she was getting sorted and you didn't do anything. Now you're stuck with Blaise as your partner and Kristin will be snogging with Potter after class.' Draco looked over at Blaise Zabini. She was twirling her hair and chewing some gun. Blaise noticed him looking and leaned over to him.  
  
"I'm not wearing anything under my robe," she whispered huskily in his ear.  
  
Draco smiled at her. He could use something to get his mind off Potter's girl.  
  
"Ok, today..."Snape began teaching.  
  
------  
  
"No, Harry, it's not.  
  
'No, Not Harry Potter. Why couldn't she stay with the Malfoy boy? One would think she's learned her lesson after that first incident. I guess I'll have to give her a little review.' 


	7. Midnight Shimmers

Ok everyone! Here's chapter 7. I hope that chapter 6 wasn't too confusing for anyone.  
  
-----  
  
Draco nervously approached Kristin after class. He didn't quite know what to say anymore. She had just spent the entire class period with her love, Harry Potter. He knew that she had turned him down before but she didn't seem too happy about it when looking at him today.  
  
She and Harry hadn't said much to each other all through class but Draco could see the care in their eyes. He wished she would look at him like that. Just once. But it wasn't to be. His dream girl would someday end up Harry's reality girl and there's nothing anyone could do about it.  
  
"Hi, Kristin," he said timidly. He couldn't stop staring down at the floor. He could feel is face flush and ran a hand through his silver blonde hair.  
  
"Hello there, Draco Malfoy," she smiled sweetly at him, easing his tension a little with her warm eyes.  
  
"You didn't cause a catastrophe today." He made conversation.  
  
"I know. That whole stupid class was pretty painful, however. Harry kept looking at me like some lost puppy dog. It was horrible."  
  
"I can imagine," he forced a nervous laugh. 'Please don't talk about him,' he silently pleaded with her. "So, I take it, you're not too happy about being over him, are you?"  
  
"I don't know," she sighed heavily, looking at Draco with tears in her eyes. "I mean, I thought I was- who am I fooling? No, I'm not. I love looking at him because he's adorable, but I hate looking at him because he always looks so sad and I have a feeling it's my fault." She was doing some full out crying now. Draco held her close while she spilled her heart to him. "Do you have any clue how that feels? To look at someone and just know that you are meant to be together, even if it's just for a little while? To just want somebody so bad and to see them hurt and know that you can't do anything about it?"  
  
"Yeah," he mumbled, "I've been there a time or two. But Kristin, isn't there something you can do about it? I mean, just tell him that you'd like to go out with him." He couldn't believe that he was giving her advice that meant losing her even more but he just couldn't stand to see her cry anymore.  
  
"It's not that easy, Draco." She sobbed. He gestured to her to follow him to a more deserted hallway so that everyone couldn't see her cry.  
  
"I just can't. There are so many good reasons against it." She continued.  
  
"Name one."  
  
"I can't."  
  
"See?"  
  
"No, I have one," she corrected his assumption, "I just can't tell you."  
  
"So you can't tell me? And you can't tell Potter? What's so bad about it?"  
  
"Because Harry will hate me."  
  
"Hey," he tilted her chin up towards him, "nothing can make him hate you." He looked into her eyes and could feel the magnetism. She brought her face closer to his. Draco wanted desperately to kiss her.  
  
"We had better get to class," he pulled away. He would slap himself for this later, but he couldn't take advantage of her like that. 'What is wrong with you?' his inner voice screamed. 'This isn't you. You should be kissing her, then dragging her up to your room and ravage her while she's still vulnerable.' He shook the horrible thoughts from his head, wiped away her tears, and walked her to her next class.  
  
-----  
  
Kristin moaned slightly in her sleep. Harry wondered what she was dreaming about. Maybe it was him. He could hope, couldn't he? Watching her sleep, he rethought his decision.  
  
She hadn't really spoken to him in three weeks, after their very brief discussion on her first day back. He still wasn't sure what he was doing, but he wondered if she knew what she was up to. She had turned him down in the library. But after that kiss and the one in the hallway, he hoped she couldn't deny her feelings for him. Then she disappeared and Harry thought that he had lost her forever.  
  
But then, to his relief, she returned. The joy he should have felt was hampered by the tears she hid after they had first spoken. Harry couldn't help but believe that it was his fault she was crying.  
  
He sighed. He had to do it now or he would turn back. He touched her gently on the shoulder. She awoke with a start and looked his direction.  
  
Kristin couldn't see a thing. Something had touched her. She felt it. 'No, not again,' she thought as her heartbeat quickened in terror. But her dread subsided when it wasn't the voice she was used to in these little "visits."  
  
"Kristin," Harry whispered softly. He couldn't be too loud or her roommates would wake up and maybe even catch him. It wasn't likely though under the safety of his invisibility cloak.  
  
"Harry Potter, where are you? What are you doing here?" she knew who it was but still looked around for his location.  
  
Harry appeared before her eyes as he lifted the cloak.  
  
"Shhh. Come with me and I'll explain." He took her hand, pulled her closer to him, and let down the cloak.  
  
Kristin gasped audibly at not being able to see herself. Harry put his finger to her mouth to remind her to stay quiet in the halls.  
  
They walked together in the stillness of the halls. It was much different from what Kristin was used to between classes, when everyone was bustling from here to there. She wondered where he was taking her but decided not to say anything lest Filch or Mrs. Norris be around to hear. So, she followed, in silence, forcing herself to trust him. He led her to the front doors of the castle and he opened them quietly. She trailed him outside; he closed the door behind them. It was then she noticed what he held in the hand that wasn't holding hers. He held it out of the cloak so she could see the Firebolt he had brought with him. They straddled it underneath the cloak and with a nudge, Harry made it take off. His hair lightly tickled her face as it blew in the wind.  
  
They finally landed and Kristin opened her eyes. She looked about her and found herself on the roof of one of the towers. The breeze was light with a cool October chill and the stars shone brightly over head. The night was bright with the light of the full autumn moon. She shivered slightly until Harry wrapped his cloak over her shoulders.  
  
Her eyes were caught by another flicker of lights. Candles. The tiny shimmer of lights surrounded a blanket with a small basket on it.  
  
"What's in there?" she asked coyly, gesturing at the basket.  
  
"A little midnight snack." Harry smiled, pleased by the playful tone in her voice. He walked over to the blanket, still leading Kristin by the hand. He sat down and pulled her after him.  
  
"Cookies?" he offered.  
  
Kristin smiled and accepted with a thank you.  
  
"Kristin?" Harry voice became suddenly low and solemn.  
  
"Yes, Harry Potter," she replied softly.  
  
"What happened? I thought you liked me?"  
  
"I do like you."  
  
"Then why'd you turn me down?" He struggled to keep his voice down. He didn't want to be heard and he didn't want Kristin to think he was yelling at her. He would never win her over that way.  
  
"Harry, I can't explain it to you. I can't explain it to anyone, so please, don't make me." She stared at him with her pleading hazel eyes. He couldn't look into them and continue to feel angry at her for hurting him.  
  
So, he sighed and went back to eating his cookie, before looking up her again suddenly.  
  
"Don't explain." He sweetly demanded, "just look at me the way you did that first day and talk with me the way you did." He paused for a moment. "Go out with me, please."  
  
"Harry"- he covered her words with his lips and pulled her closer into a kiss.  
  
-----  
  
Kristin wanted to push away but couldn't bring herself to do it. Her hands wrapped around his head and she felt his silky tresses between her fingers.  
  
Slowly, she felt him leaning more and more into her until she laid down and he on top of her. She continued to kiss him passionately as she ran her hands down his bare back. She felt his muscles ripple at her touch and pulled her hands away until she was barely touching him.  
  
He breathed heavily into her and she could feel his heart beat quicken.  
  
Kristin's fingers tugged playfully at the elastic waistband in his silky pajama bottoms. She ran her hands over the cool, smooth fabric, caressing his firm butt underneath.  
  
She yanked harder at the pants pulling them lower and was pleased to find he wasn't wearing anything underneath.  
  
Her actions pleased him, too. Kristin could feel it against her. She arched slightly against him and he moaned in pleasure. He took the opportunity to wrap his arms all the way around her waist so she couldn't pull herself away from him. He placed soft kisses down her neck, and slipped one of her tank top straps off her shoulders.  
  
Still holding her close, he moved his hands up her back, underneath her shirt. Her skin trembled the way she had imagined many times over the past four weeks. Soon, the tank top she had been wearing was on the roof next to the blanket. She thought for a moment about how she would explain it if the shirt hit a candle and caught fire, but Harry touching her brought her back to the moment.  
  
Her head fell back as she whimpered lightly in ecstasy and Harry's fingers traced circles all over her body. She could feel him on her stomach, on her breasts, shoulders, and back and couldn't wait until he used them other places. He told her with a tug at her pajama pants that he couldn't either. He pulled them lower and over her feet until she lay beneath him, naked, as he lay on top of her, wearing nothing as well.  
  
"I've never done this before," she stopped him.  
  
"I'll go slow. It may hurt a little. I'll try not to." He said reassuring. He was leaning on his elbow, on top of her, gazing into her eyes and running a hand through her velvety hair. He kissed her softly and slowly began to enter her. She was already moist. He could feel it.  
  
Before long, Kristin was moaning. Harry was right. It hurt so bad, but felt far too good to let the pain stop her. A tear ran down her cheek from the sting, but Harry kissed it away.  
  
Soon, the pain ebbed and Kristin bit her lip to keep herself from screaming in rapture. She was constantly reminding herself -and Harry- that people could still hear them and she didn't want anyone to come up there and find them. She'd be expelled in no time.  
  
By this time, Harry was thrusting himself into her and she absolutely loved it. She never really understood what was so great about sex. 'Guess that's what happens yourself that you'll be a virgin forever.' She was going to have to do this more often. She could feel Harry come inside of her and she climaxed as well.  
  
They lay there, breathless, with Harry still inside of her. Their bodies dripped with sweat. Harry was looking at her the same way as he did right before he plunged into her virginity, with his head on his elbow, looking straight into her eyes.  
  
She sighed audibly.  
  
"Ok," was all she said to him.  
  
"Ok, what?" he wasn't expecting her to say anything.  
  
"I'll go out with you." She smiled at him.  
  
-----  
  
A/N- I'm aware that the first part is very un-Draco-like but, what can I say? He's smitten. But also remember, he went to see Blaise that night. I just didn't get into that. 


	8. Loves and Losses

A/N- Thanks a lot to my new editor. A talented young writer who chooses to remain anonymous. She's really helped me out with the technicalities of my story  
  
-----  
  
"You- you- mean it? You'll go out with me?" Harry stuttered.  
  
"That's what I said. I can't do this anymore. I can't pretend that I don't feel something when I look at you and talk to you and get a whiff of your cologne in class. I just can't take it anymore. So, I'll go out with you."  
  
"This isn't just about." he trailed off. "What just happened?"  
  
"No," she smiled at him. "I would have told you this before. After you kissed me, I just couldn't stand living the lie anymore."  
  
"So that's it? We're going out?" Harry asked, still in shock. Two or three weeks ago, he barely even imagined speaking to her, nevertheless, having sex with her on a roof and being able to call her his girlfriend.  
  
"Yeah," she smiled at him, "that's it. Were you expecting more? I can't see how much more you could get- without a ring."  
  
"I'd always imagined that there would be fireworks or something. You know, just like, letting me know that it's real."  
  
"Yeah," Kristin replied sarcastically, "fireworks going off on their own in the middle of the night when I say something complete irrelevant to anyone but us. Sounds real to me."  
  
"Shh," he leaned down and kissed her lightly. "Don't make fun of me." He rolled over and lay on his back.  
  
"This is beautiful, Harry Potter," Kristin remarked, looking at the view. She picked up her shirt, put it back on, and hunted for where Harry threw her pants.  
  
She finally found them and replaced them to her body, much to Harry's dismay. He groaned but she smiled at him and lay down beside him to watch the heavens above her own. She lay her on his chest and listened to his heartbeat steadily against her ear. Her eyes started to blink heavily as she drifted off to sleep to the rhythm of Harry.  
  
-----  
  
Kristin awoke with a start. She looked around and found herself back in her own bed. She sighed audibly in relief. There was a fear in her that she would wake up on the roof. That being overcome, a new fear took her. A fear that last night was all a dream.  
  
Her heart skipped a worried beat at the thought of last night not being real. It felt so real. If it wasn't, it was one hell of a dream! She sighed at the memory of Harry inside of her last night. She could see his eyes when she closed hers, afraid to open them, terrified of losing that memory, even if it may be a fake one.  
  
She opened them anyway and sat up to go to class. Then she noticed the white iris lying at the end of her bed with a letter.  
  
"Kristin," it read, "You fell asleep last night before we had a chance to come inside or, maybe, make a date (if you still want to go out with me). I'll talk to you in class. I'm looking forward to it. Yours, Harry."  
  
'Mine. I like that sound. He's mine.' She smiled to herself and nearly floated to the shower. The hot water felt amazing against her skin. Everything felt amazing to her at that moment. Everything she took for granted, the cool silky fabric of her robes, the soft feel of her favorite socks against her feet, felt like ecstasy again.  
  
She glided down the stairs to the Slytherin common room, where she met Draco.  
  
"Good morning, dear." She beamed at him. Draco looked at her strangely.  
  
"I told you, Kristin, no drugs." He chided in jest.  
  
"Right." She nodded. "Shall we get breakfast?"  
  
Draco offered her his arm. She took it and accompanied him to breakfast.  
  
------  
  
"So, what's with you, Kristin?" Draco persisted. "You're practically glowing."  
  
"I just -uh, had a really great dream last night." She replied.  
  
"How come I don't believe you?"  
  
"I don't know. How come?"  
  
"Maybe because you're lying."  
  
"Or maybe not. Let's go. It's time for class." She grabbed him by the wrist and whisked him away to potions.  
  
She talked with him and giggled. Draco loved it when she was in moods like this. She smiled a lot. He adored her smile. It was wide and showed her teeth and was usually accompanied with a melodious giggle and a toss of her beautiful chocolate hair.  
  
As they passed a corner, an arm shot out and grabbed Kristin by the waist. She screamed, startled, as Draco saw her disappear around the corner. He hurried around and pulled her away from her attacker. Draco held up his fist, about to punch when Kristin screamed.  
  
"Draco, stop!" she yelled. "It's just Harry!"  
  
Draco took a hold of his senses long enough to notice Potter leaning against the wall.  
  
"What are you doing here, Potter?"  
  
"Draco," Kristin said coolly, trying to calm him, "Harry and I are going out now. It's okay. Alright?"  
  
"Since when," Draco replied. There was a slight snarl in his voice.  
  
"Since last night," her eyes pleaded with him, "that's why I'm so happy today. I just didn't want to tell you with all those people around. It's still kind of on the down low."  
  
"Oh," he stammered "I'm sorry, Kristin. Potter. I guess I'll let you two be alone." He shuffled away with hurt in his eyes.  
  
"Draco! Wait!" Kristin called after him. He pretended not to hear. He couldn't turn around now. Tears were welling in his eyes and he couldn't let Kristin or Potter see him that way. "Draco! Please! Don't do this!" The pain in her voice turned to anger. "Stop now, Draco Lucius Malfoy! Or I'll never speak to you again! Ever!"  
  
Draco spun around quickly. "Fine!" He retorted. "Who would want to be friends with a Slytherin who falls for a Gryffindor anyway!" He turned again and stormed off, hoping the distance between him and Kristin was far enough to mask the stabbing pain in his eyes. He stormed to his dormitory and slammed the door.  
  
He cast a silencing spell on his room and screamed at the top of his lungs in anger. It wasn't doing any good. He caught his reflection in the mirror. It was horrible. He looked a wreck.  
  
Draco couldn't stand to see it anymore and slammed his fist into the image of his face before he had time to rethink his actions. He quickly regretted it as pain overtook his hand. His focus was taken away from the shattered mirror by the blood dripping from his slashed appendage.  
  
"Damn it!" He looked at his hand. It hung down limp and disfigured. He had no choice but to go to Madam Pomfrey's office. He couldn't go down to potions shedding blood all over the place. Kristin would know it was because of her and that prat Harry Potter, thanks to his rash display in the hallway.  
  
'Can't leave well enough alone, can you Potter? You've got the friends and the fame and the love of everyone but you have to take the girl too.'  
  
He made his way in pain to the infirmary.  
  
-----  
  
"Harry, what am I going to do?" Kristin sobbed. Harry held her close as she struggled to grasp how Malfoy could get so mad at her. "He's my best friend. How can he just desert me like this?"  
  
"Shh," he comforted her. "Ron and Hermoine will love you."  
  
"Those are YOUR friends, Harry." She looked up at him with tears in her eyes.  
  
"So?"  
  
"So, what do I do when I go back to the common room or my other classes? I don't have any other friends in Slytherin. Draco is it."  
  
"Listen, if Mal- uh- Draco," he corrected after she snapped him a stern look of disapproval, "if Draco is going to be a stupid git just because you decide to go out with someone he doesn't like, then he's not a very good friend, is he?"  
  
She sighed. "I guess not. Maybe you're right." Kristin started to give up thinking that, maybe, just maybe, Harry had a point. He'd told her about his past and how he never had any friends either, until he came to Hogwarts. So, he understood where she was coming from. But soon, she fought again. "But Harry, he's MY no-good friend. And, good or not, the only one I have."  
  
"What about me?" he asked with a look of pain at being forgotten.  
  
"That's fine," she smiled, for the first time during the conversation, "but who do I complain to when you're being a prat?" She laughed at the expression on his face. "You are so cute sometimes."  
  
"Only sometimes?" he asked with fake hurt puppy eyes.  
  
"Only sometimes," she confirmed, with a kiss on the lips and a light giggle. "Let's go to class." They journeyed from the hall outside the infirmary to the dark, dank dungeon for Potions class.  
  
----- 


	9. A Glance at a Past

Draco entered the hall to the infirmary and saw Kristin leave with Harry, hands interlocked. He groaned as he watched her laugh with him and touch him affectionately, before they disappeared behind a corner.  
  
He opened the door to have Madam Pomfrey practically pounce on him with concern.  
  
"Mr. Malfoy," she fretted, "what happened to you?"  
  
"I- uh- punched a mirror," he admitted, staring at the floor in embarrassment.  
  
The nurse sighed audibly and mumbled something under her breath. Draco could make out the words "temper" and "no sense" but didn't let it get to him.  
  
Madam Pomfrey cast a restoring spell and Draco saw his hand stop bleeding and the cuts disappear. He thanked her and walked to potions.  
  
As he reached the dim, musty hallway of the Potions dungeon, he could hear a light giggle over the muffled voices in the classroom. He recognized it instantly as Kristin's.  
  
"That's why I'm in such a good mood." Her earlier words echoed in his head. 'Of course,' he thought, 'I would never make her so happy.'  
  
He paused at the door, breathed in deeply, and forced himself to go in. He tried to avoid looking at her but he couldn't help it.  
  
She had her hand on Harry's arm flirtatiously and laughed with him. With her other hand, she played with her tawny colored hair. The shiny tresses shifted slightly at her touch, toying with the little light in the room.  
  
Draco passed her as he made his way to his table next to Blaise. Kristin looked at him fleetingly and went back to talking with Harry as if she had never glanced up.  
  
"Where were you?" Blaise snarled at him.  
  
"None of your business," he snapped back.  
  
She glared at him and turned back to her front of the room where Professor Snape began his teaching.  
  
-----  
  
"You know," Harry's green eyes gazed into her own. "I used to hate this class." He smiled at her.  
  
"You're so cheesy," Kristin laughed at him, pushing his arm lightly. She rested her hand on top of his arm and played lightly with her hair.  
  
Draco walked by slowly and unsteadily, paler than normal, almost sick looking. He looked weak and unstable, as if he was going to collapse at any moment.  
  
Kristin could bear to look for tool long and quickly turned back towards Harry.  
  
'He didn't look like that before.' She reflected on their last meeting and struggled to remember it was only ten minutes ago though it felt like an eternity. It was much too long to cope without her best friend. 'I've been without friends since I was four,' she reminded herself. 'Why should he be any different?'  
  
-----  
  
Her mind drifted back to when she was a child, playing with her best friend, Jessica, in the playground of Saint Agnes à la Maison pour de Seuls Enfants (St. Agnes' Home for Lone Children) in Muggle Paris. She and Jessica were jumping rope and giggling happily, when Trish, a girl who picked on her all the time, jumped in the twirling ropes. Kristin fumed as another friend was pushed to the ground in Trish's attempt to play with them.  
  
The rope moved under her hands as its soft rubber handle started feeling cool and scaly. The rest of the children screamed. Kristin looked up and saw that the rope had transformed into a large green snake. It had bitten Jessica, who was bleeding severely from the puncture wound on her neck, and it was heading toward Trish. Kristin screamed as well and dropped the serpent.  
  
The jump rope hit the ground harmlessly with a soft thud. It was no longer the venomous jade snake it had been before, but a anodyne black canvas jump rope with rubber handles.  
  
But Kristin could not handle it. She continued screaming and jumping on the rope until she was certain that all serpentine characteristics had ceased to exist. She cried helplessly late into the night after the headmistress had told her that Jessica was dead. She didn't know exactly what it meant. Dead. She just realized that she would never see her best friend again.  
  
She didn't speak to anyone for almost a year, except for a few words to an imaginary Jessica. In time, Kristin began talking again but none of the other children wanted anything to do with her. The blame for Jessica's death placed itself on the shoulders of the girl who mourned her the most, who knew as much as anyone else what happened the afternoon that would set the example for the rest of her life.  
  
-----  
  
"Kristin," Professor Snape was making his rounds, checking on everyone's progress, "you're doing it perfectly."  
  
"Really?" she smiled, gesturing towards Harry slightly with her head to remind Snape that he was there. Snape scowled at her slightly, showing his disapproval to her interest in the boy-who-lived.  
  
"Yes, uh, you didn't screw up, Harry. Aren't we all happy?" Kristin smiled at his attempt but he still gave her dirty looks as she and Harry held hands and talked tenderly.  
  
-----  
  
The silence drove Kristin mad. It was so hard to be so little and lose a friend and have no where to turn, so she turned to the door. With a few of her belongings and a couple of Jessica's, Kristin sneaked from Saint Agnes à la Maison pour de Seuls Enfants into the dark cold November night. The full moon was shining brightly overhead casting shadows in which she could hide from passers-by.  
  
She walked all night. Daylight broke beautifully with sunbeams exploding everywhere. Kristin saw people start to rise and head about their day. No one paused to watch the six-year-old wander the streets of Versailles that morning. She strolled around, not sure of her direction, dragging her pillowcase stuffed with her belongings behind her.  
  
She walked until afternoon before she summed up what cash she could find and bought herself some lunch. She had grown used to not being noticed and quite appreciated the lack of attention, but it didn't last long. Someone detected something odd about her and she could feel his eyes prying her mind looking for answers.  
  
This was a strange part of town that Kristin had never seen the likes of. People were wearing cloaks and strange things were happening. She looked around warily to find the person so interested in her.  
  
"Miss Riddle," a tall, blonde man addressed her. She trembled slightly. Who was this man? Why was he talking to her? Most importantly, how did he know her name? "I've anticipated meeting you for a long time."  
  
"You've what?" she struggled to understand his word but they were too complex for her to understand.  
  
"I've have been waiting to meet you." He knelt down to her and said the words she had been waiting six years to hear. "I'm a friend of your father."  
  
Kristin gasped audibly as wonderment overtook her features.  
  
"My-my-my father?" she asked, stunned. She had never heard anything of her parents. The sisters at the orphanage found a note with only her name and birthday and a one-year-old little girl in the church of Saint Agnes.  
  
"Yes, dear, your father." The stranger held at his hand from above her. "Come with me."  
  
"You're taking me to him?" She hoped beyond hope. Her parents must be able to love her- no matter what happened at Saint Agnes. Maybe they could tell her what happened with the snake.  
  
"I'm sorry. I'm afraid I can't do that," Kristin's smile faded, "You see? He's very sick. But he'd like you to come live with me and my wife and son." His dark robes hung down exotically and unfamiliarly. She had never seen anything like the garb of this kind.  
  
She warily took the hand of the tall, proud stranger. A house elf reached for her pillowcase. Kristin screamed and pulled away at the strange sight. A pair of huge eyes stared back at her.  
  
"It's ok. That's my house elf, Dobby. He's here to assist you with anything you may need." She suspiciously handed the creature her tattered old pillowcase carrying her few earthly possessions. "by the way, my name- is Lucius Malfoy." 


	10. Faeries, and Unicorns, and Boots

"I'll catch up with you, Harry. I need to talk to Professor Snape for a little bit." Kristin waved him onward.  
  
"Alright," Harry leaned close to her for a moment and she kissed him lightly on the cheek while running a hand through his tousled raven-colored hair. She watched him out the door.  
  
"So?" Snape started, "Potter, huh? I always expected more from you." His head shook in dissatisfaction.  
  
"Well, I like him, anyway." She held her head high and proud, in a voice filled with dignity as if explaining her feelings for her boyfriend to her potions teacher was a long walk of an innocent to the guillotine.  
  
"For reasons I'll never understand," he sighed, with another shake of his head. "How does Mr. Malfoy feel about all of this?"  
  
"Well," the pride that had filled her features before seemed to scuttle out the shadowy, dark dungeon door. "Actually, Draco isn't too happy with the whole situation. But he'll get over it," she looked doubtful, "right?"  
  
Snape looked toward her sympathetically; "No one gets over having yet another reason to be jealous of the guy who's always been better."  
  
"But why would he be jealous? We can still be friends. Me going out with Harry doesn't change that."  
  
"Exactly, you're going out with Harry and not him. He's been your friend since your second day and you pick Harry instead of him."  
  
"But Draco and I are just friends," Kristin assured, "I've never even thought of going out with him."  
  
"Well, he's though of it. Then you go and pick Harry Potter. Draco has spent the past six years dreaming of beating Harry at something, anything. Draco's got talent, but Harry has been fated to be great. I'll admit that Harry knows what's going on and he's got what it takes but so does Draco and just because they react differently, Draco is seen as the bad guy and Harry the courageous hero. Just when he thinks he may actually get what he wants for a change, Harry comes along and takes you from him."  
  
"Harry didn't take me from him. Harry came along first, then Draco decided I wasn't too bad, after he came to the infirmary to insult me." Her voice started to rise. "Anyway, I don't just want to be Draco's prize; the epitome of his defeat of Harry Potter."  
  
"You don't understand anything I just told you," Snape was yelling back, "did you? Don't you recognize anything beside yourself? Just go then. Just go and be with Harry Potter but think about how much it kills Draco inside just to watch you two together. Just realize that he knows that everything he wants Harry will have and he's never good enough to get the girl, no matter how much he thinks they were meant to be together, until one day he can't take anymore and winds up a muggle just because he can't stand to live in a world where all he hears about is your wedding or your kids or anything." He became calm for a moment, lowering his voice with contempt, "Have you told Harry about your father yet?"  
  
"Shut up." She turned on her heals and stormed out, slamming the 40 pound dungeon door behind her without touching it. All of the candles in the room erupted for a moment before extinguishing and leaving Snape alone in the dark.  
  
-----  
  
Kristin fumed all the way down the hall until she looked up the stairs at Harry waiting for her. He extended his arm to beckon her and her spirits lifted a little. Taking his hand, they started to walk toward her next class talking about homework.  
  
"Oh, by the way," he began.  
  
-----  
  
Kristin followed the tall dark man closely, religiously, not wanting to lose the closest thing she had to family- not again. His black cloak billowed behind him in a way she had never seen before. In fact, her eyes never before beheld most things in this village. The house elf followed closely, clutching Kristin's pillowcase, diligently, his giant eyes staring at her in awe.  
  
She walked a little longer, until her feet were sore. The weary girl hadn't stopped much since the night before and was beginning to get hungry. She told Mr. Malfoy of this and he immediately stopped and got her something to eat from a small diner. Kristin loved the way she was being doted upon by this new stranger, as if she was something more than just an orphan with a terrifying, unexplainable past.  
  
Slightly after dark, they reached an open meadow surrounded by growths of trees and bushes as if the place was never meant to be found. The sunlight streaked from the sky around the white billowy clouds. Kristin thought of stories of places like this- stories with fairies and unicorns, with all sorts of magical things happening all around her. She saw a few specks of lights dancing in the distance of the woods, slight chattering. A glowing white figure ephemerally flickered in between the trees.  
  
Kristin's mouth dropped in awe and a slight gasp escaped her lips. Mr. Malfoy glanced back at her with a strange look, as if he was surprised that she had never seen a unicorn before. The house elf played with the pillowcase admiringly.  
  
They soon arrived on the top of a hill where there sat an old boot. Lucius Malfoy picked it up expertly as if it were of much use to him, though Kristin didn't see why. He held fast to her hand and told her to touch the boot with the other hand. Dobby reached for it as well and all of a sudden, she felt herself propelled forward into dizziness. 


	11. Falling in Love?

A/N: sorry that the updates are taking forever, but you know how school goes, homework, papers, more homework, a couple more papers, and some late study nights don't leave too much time for some late night inspiration or writing so I'm doing what I can. plus I'm slight writer-blocked at the moment (MY BRAIN HAS BEEN FRIED!!!) Thanks so much for all your reviews (all 13, that's a lot for me) it eases the block a little so keep them coming. PLEEEEEEAAAAAAASSSSSSE!!!  
  
-----  
  
"Have fun in Transfiguration," Harry bid her ado.  
  
"It would be more fun if you were there," she forced herself to smile and giggle, struggling not to let Harry learn of the encounter between her and her potions teacher. He was not to know of it at all, no matter how loud that damn door slammed. Snape could throw his accusations in her face, Draco could glare at her with his steely gray eyes, but Harry could kiss her and hold her and know what she wants and what she needs and love her like she's never been loved before. His green emerald eyes made up for all the Dracos in the world.  
  
Harry kissed her once more before she turned reluctantly in the door for Transfiguration. Inadvertantly, her gaze immediately searched for that of Draco, chillingly, it found his. The warmth that was once in those gray eyes was gone, leaving only a freezing, soulless, uncaring, unforgiving glare that sent shivers down her spine. She took a seat at the back of class, not daring to sit near Draco after what Snape had said about him. 'Does he really feel that way? He can't, not me, Blaise, maybe, she's attractive, more his style. She's very suave, very sexy, not as giddy as I am when I'm with him. Maybe it's a good thing we're not speaking anymore. He'll realize how much better Blaise is for him and never have feelings for me again.' She sighed at the thought.  
  
-----  
  
'Where is she going?' Draco wondered as Kristin walked by his table. He watched her to her table in the back, the same place she had sat that first day, all alone, not a friend in the world. 'That's probably how she thinks it is right now,' he reflected. Blaise tapped him jealously; she knew something was up when Draco didn't walk with her and Harry took his place. Harry always took his place. No matter what he did, Harry was there, doing it better. No matter where he went, Harry was there first. He sighed. No matter what girl he fell madly in love with for the first time in his life, Harry was there stealing her from him. Damn wonder-kid.  
  
He sighed again, coupled with the sigh from a table behind him. He looked behind to see Kristin leaned listlessly on her hand and stare sadly out the window. He wondered what she was thinking about right now; he really hoped Harry had done anything to hurt her. If he didn't hate that punk already.  
  
-----  
  
Harry sped to his class; walking Kristin to transfiguration always made him late but she was worth it. He loved it when she smiled like that and kissed him as if he was the world to her. Harry beamed as he hastened to get to class when something stopped him- the torches in the narrow, barely- traveled hall between McGonagall's classroom and the exit to Hagrid's "classroom" were glowing - green? He stopped abrubtly before terror made him run. The torches blew up behind him two-by-two as he raced to the outside, flames hurling behind him, and he made it-though not the way he desired. The window was never a preferred form of travel.  
  
-----  
  
A/N: Okay, I know, it's really short, but like I said- Writer's block. Maybe a couple more reviews would warrant a longer chapter 12 (HINT, HINT) 


	12. Unseen, Unknown, Unrelenting

Thanks for the reviews, everyone -- okay. like 4 people, but that's like ¼ of my total reviews. slightly sad, huh?-it's up to YOU to change that! J/k -- thanks anyway  
  
-----  
  
Kristin stared out the window, lost in thought; only a frightening familiar image found her again.  
  
"HARRY!!!!'' she shrieked, running to the window in mad panic, watching the boy-who-lived tumble out the window, hoping beyond hope he could do it again, that he could escape death once again. She leaned over, reaching out in vein hopes of saving Harry, catching him and holding him tight. He invaded her every thought, making her unable to focus on anything else, until a hand on her back pulled her- or pushed her- to reality. The force of the hand sent Kristin flying over the edge of the windowsill. She toppled slowly and not too far before an arm around her waist pulled her back to the room.  
  
Kristin ended up in Draco's arms, leaning against his firm chest with his strong arm around her waist, staring up into his steel gray eyes. She opened her mouth to thank him, but was interrupted by the terrified screams of the girls in the class that were still watching the scene in the window across the courtyard. Kristin turned away from his gaze quickly and darted out the door, down the stairs and to the courtyard by Harry's side.  
  
"Harry," she whispered, tears streaming down her face uncontrollably. "Harry, sweetheart, wake up. Please wake up." She feared to touch him in case she hurt him anymore, but she could hear him breathing harshly and painfully, giving her some relief, for, though he was in pain, he was alive, and Madam Pomfrey could fix that; she had fixed Kristin already this year.  
  
The boy moaned slightly, tried to move, and moaned even louder. Kristin hushed him and told him quietly not to move. He reached for her hand but she told him to sit still, that someone would be there soon. He begged her not to leave and she promised that she wouldn't and stayed by his side until Madam Pomfrey, Professor McGonagall, Professor Dumbledore and a mass of other teachers swept him away.  
  
Lastly was Snape.  
  
He shuffled behind arrogantly, waiting for Kristin to say something to him. But she wouldn't budge, if he wanted to say something to her, he would have to say it first. There was no giving in to him. Not this time.  
  
Apparently he felt the same. He simply glared at her, yet his cold black eyes showed sympathy and a little remorse, though she knew that she wasn't meant to pick up on it.  
  
Kristin trailed after the concerned entourage, just steps behind Snape, to the infirmary and waited worried, pacing, and crying in the hall outside the door. She couldn't hear anything, alone in the silence of the hall until the door opened.  
  
"Ms. Riddle," Dumbledore said quietly, omnisciently positive that no one was within earshot, "This may take a while. Why don't we take a walk?"  
  
"How is he?" she insisted.  
  
"I'm not going to lie. He's hurt pretty bad. But you can be assured that everyone is doing all they can to save him." He put his hand on her shoulder but she turned away quickly.  
  
"What about you?" Kristin asked indignantly, "What are you doing to help him if you're out here talking to me? You're the most powerful magician in the world, right? The only person my father ever feared, right? So why aren't you in there saving him? You're on his side. Why am I more worried than you are? I'm supposed to be his archenemy, aren't I?"  
  
"I am doing what needs to be done right now." He remained calm, despite Kristin's demanding tone. "Kristin, wizards of Harry's status don't just fall out of windows on accident. Something happened in that hallway and I think your father has something to do with it. I'm almost afraid he doesn't fear me as much with you around." He put his hand back on her shoulder and nudged her gently to walk down the hall.  
  
"You're not asking me to leave, are you?" she asked. Though expulsion was not the ultimate worry on her mind right now, it pained her to imagine leaving this place. Despite the conflicts with Snape and Draco, Kristin had finally found a place she wanted to call home, a place where she bothered to unpack her trunk and put it in the wardrobe by her four poster bed. Her four poster bed, in her room, in this wonderful place called Hogwarts that was finally hers, where she was safe from her father and only two people knew her real name, well, three but he didn't know he knew.  
  
"No, Kristin, I would never ask that of you, and I have no reason to ask that of you. No, I just truly think that this has something to do with Voldemort."  
  
"When doesn't it?" she screamed, "When doesn't he do something to interfere with my life, my happiness? Why can't the jerk just leave me alone?" She wasn't talking to the headmaster anymore but was screaming wildly through the deserted halls, aiming the plea at the unseen force which proved to be lurking around her new niche, as it lurked around her every move, unseen, unknown, unrelenting.  
  
Kristin tripped over something and fell to the ground, crying unstoppably. It was just enough to throw her over the edge. She looked down at the object that brought her down. It was a book on magical creatures with small notes all over it- Harry's book. A few of them were scattered across the floor. Dumbledore had brought her to the hallway that Harry fell from. Torches lit the walls ominously, casting shadows of the girl and the teacher onto the walls.  
  
She got herself up slowly, took a deep breath, and warily approached the window. A light breeze twirled around her brown hair wrapping it delicately around her face and drying the tears. Her robes billowed behind her and cold chills trickled through the warm late autumn breeze.  
  
"So, this is it, huh?" she choked her words out quietly. "This is where he fell?" She looked back at him for a reaction. Professor Dumbledore simply nodded.  
  
Kristin paused for a moment. "Should we check up on Harry? I'm terribly worried."  
  
"You can feel it, can't you, Kristin?"  
  
"I feel worried about Harry. That's all. I feel as if I should be there, just in case." She turned to face him with her pleading hazel eyes.  
  
"As you wish." He nodded his consent to leave and walked her back to the infirmary, where he told her to wait outside while he checked on his status.  
  
"He's fine." A sinister voice came from behind her. "He's just sleeping now." Professor Snape walked up to her and held out his arms. Kristin ran to him and he held her close while she cried. Even though Harry was alright, she cried. Even though Snape wasn't mad at her anymore, she cried. Even though Draco had put everything aside and saved her, she cried. She cried because she had finally found three wonderful men -a lover, a father, and a friend- and one man threatened to take it all away whenever she turned her back, or raised her wand, or raised her temper, or got scared or angry or lonely or sad, or when she breathed the wrong way; it would all come crashing down around her and she would be on her own again, with her pillowcase and belongings, a little girl, wandering alone.  
  
"Ms. Riddle," Dumbledore interjected quietly. He had been standing there for a while but was waiting for the right time to interrupt this reunion. "Mr. Potter is asking for you."  
  
Kristin nodded, weakly and made her way to Harry's side.  
  
"Hi sweetheart," she greeted; smiling and brushing a piece raven hair out of his face, though it returned to its tousled position. "How are you feeling?"  
  
"Not to bad, right now. Madam Pomfrey gave me something to ease the pain. She says I'll be here overnight but nothing actually too serious. They say something, like, slowed my fall." Harry lowered his voice. "I felt it, Kristin. It wasn't just like someone pushed me over. It was like someone was- was pulling me down, like I was falling faster than I should have, like gravity wasn't working alone. My scar was killing me all the time. And then I heard someone scream and it stopped. I fell slower, like whatever was pulling got interrupted, like there was something more important than I was at that moment. If that hadn't happened I would've sure been dead."  
  
Kristin struggled not to cry. That was it. Her father was the one pulling him down, and when Kristin fell, her father turned his energies from killing Harry to what was going on at her own window. Dumbledore was right; she did feel it, her father's presence all around her, everywhere she went, haunting her, stalking her, targeting not only her but everyone she loved as well.  
  
"I'm sorry, Kristin, I didn't mean to upset you. I know how you must worry about me sometimes. Or I hope you worry about me sometimes." He smiled at her.  
  
Kristin laughed, brushing away a tear.  
  
"Only sometimes, there are others when I think that I should have pushed you out the window, you stupid prat," She giggled and kissed his forehead, caressing his cheek with her fingertips.  
  
"Oh, thanks," he replied sarcastically.  
  
"Well, you ask for it, sometimes."  
  
"When?" he asked indignantly.  
  
"How about when you wake me up in the middle of the night to tell me something that you could've told me at school?"  
  
"True, but the 'conversation' we had afterwards wasn't anything I could've said in Potions class." Harry joked.  
  
"You could've, but I don't think Snape would've reacted so well." She giggled again. "How did you get into my room anyway? You couldn't have gotten passed the painting. He hates Gryffindors."  
  
"I followed Malfoy and Blaise in the entrance with my invisibility cloak."  
  
"Draco and Blaise?"  
  
"Yeah, it seems, we're not the only ones who run away at night."  
  
"Oh" Kristin seemed shocked, almost hurt and her eyes flashed a brighter shade of green, but she smiled "I still can't believe that was only last night. It seems so long ago."  
  
"Yeah, it's been wonderful though." Harry sighed, gazing at Kristin lovingly.  
  
"Yeah, falling out a window sounds wonderful to me." She joked.  
  
"Well. besides that."  
  
-----  
  
"BLAISE! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!? I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU WOULD DO SOMETHING THAT FUCKING LOW! WHAT WAS GOING THROUGH YOUR HEAD?!? YOU COULD'VE KILLED HER!!!"  
  
"Well, Draco, that was kind of the idea," she snapped at him.  
  
"But why?"  
  
"I saw the way you were looking at her. She's not just a friend to you, is she?"  
  
"I don't know what you're talking about, Blaise; of course she's just a friend to me."  
  
"Well, she is, but that's not how you want it. You want more from her. You want what Potter's got. You always have. Potter's never had me, but I love you, Draco, and she doesn't. She doesn't know what she's missing. And you're missing out on something that could be great if you choose her over me." She stood close to him with one hand on his chest and the other on his arm, body pressed against his, voice low and seductive.  
  
"Blaise," he wanted to push her back, but didn't. "I told you what any relationship between us would be based on, and last night was a pure example. It just won't work. So either you can stick around and we can have some fun for a while, possibly now because it's lunch and I'm mad, though mainly at you, or you can insist on us being more and me pushing you away and finding Pansy."  
  
"Well, if you put it that way, I suppose I want to have some fun," she smiled her horny smile, though disappointed slightly by her choices, took his hand and led him to her room for a long lunch. 


	13. One of Their Own

A/N: I know it's been forever since I've updated but here it is. I'm a learning girl realize and school wipes out my creative bug. But after a tiny vacation, I'm back in business.  
  
Thanks to everyone who has been reviewing; it really means a lot to me.  
  
Midnight Primrose Riddle: You have been so supportive this entire time and are such a great writer so I appreciate it a lot. AND FOR YOU POOR SOULS WHO DON'T KNOW--- READ "INITIATION" IT'S GREAT!!!  
  
Alex: You're foxy and you rock my world! I STRONGLY RECOMMEND READING "THE WRONG SORT" BY Dragon Mage. ALSO. WHILE YOU'RE CHECKING HER OUT, TAKE A LOOK AT "AUCTION OFF MY HEART" (our collaboration).!!!! -----  
  
Harry's chest rose and fell steadily as slept. He breathed normally again, no rasping tonight. Kristin sat attentively in the chair next to his bed, his hand in hers. The stars shone brightly outside; she wondered what time it was, knowing it must be late. She leaned her head back in relief and closed her eyes, taking in the sights of her eyelids for the first time since she woke up that morning.  
  
Frantically, her eyes darted open. Harry was groaning in pain, awake from his much needed slumber. But it wasn't his broken ribs or dislocated collarbone; Harry was rubbing his scar, writhing in agony, while Kristin screamed, unsure of what was going on.  
  
Madam Pomfrey rushed into the room, followed closely by Snape and the Headmaster. They pushed Kristin out of the room frantically and the nurse and the two teachers struggled to figure out what was happening. As soon as Kristin left the screams stopped, leaving her in the hall in an awful dark silence, marked only by her stifled sobs.  
  
"Kristin, what's going on? Is Harry going to be alright?" Kristin turned to see Hermione walking towards her in concern. Hermione put her hand on Kristin's arm to comfort and Kristin fell into her arms sobbing hysterically. "Sweetheart, what happened?"  
  
"I don't know," she choked out. "There was something wrong with his head and he was in a lot of pain and they kicked me out and they won't tell me what's going on and I asked a lot but they didn't care."  
  
"His scar?" Hermione asked worriedly.  
  
Kristin nodded weakly.  
  
"What does it mean?"  
  
"You-know-who is around, lurking somewhere, no doubt; that little rat, the slimy bastard. I wish he would just go the fuck away. He won't win." Hermione ranted.  
  
Kristin simply looked at her confused. His scar could tell when her father was around. She wondered if he was in this much pain while running down that hall. Hermione was right. Harry could always triumph over Voldemort; Voldemort had the Dark Arts, but Harry had something more. He had a good soul and a conscience and people who cared about him and morals and everything else that made a wizard good rather than evil; and good always triumphs over evil. Right? Just like the story books.  
  
"Maybe the better question is: will you be alright?" Hermione asked her. "Go to your house, kiddo, Harry will be fine. Get some rest. It's been a long day for all of us."  
  
Hermione and Kristin walked down the halls in silence, Hermione making sure Kristin got to bed before proceeding to her room and falling fast asleep.  
  
-----  
  
Kristin rolled slightly in bed about to settle back to sleep when she felt someone standing over. She opened her eyes slightly to see who it could be. Blaise hovered over her, aiming her wand menacingly in Kristin's direction.  
  
"I've worked long and hard to make Draco mine," she growled, "and then you come in and take him away from me. That's not how it works here, Kristin. I don't know about the schools you've been at before, though I've heard there were many, but that's not how I'm letting it happen, not this time."  
  
"That's not what's happening, Blaise. Not at all, Draco and I are just friends, or were until I started going out with Harry. That's right, Harry, not Draco."  
  
"Of course, never Draco," a low voice drawled from beside her window, masked by the green and silver curtains blowing in the Indian summer breeze, but she didn't need to see the stunning gray eyes or sterling blonde hair to know the man whose bitterness cut her deeper than any spell Blaise would ever many to pull off.  
  
"It's never Draco who gets the girl," he continued, "never Draco who finds the love of his life who loves him back, never Draco that gets a girl to worry about him constantly," his voice became loud and agitated with pain quivering through it " never Draco who a girl would fuck on the roof in the moonlight and risk her life for and go against everything her father ever stood for and fall in love with. Because Draco isn't the hero and Draco is the wise one or the courageous one or the one who saves the day. And yet, Kristin," Draco's voice receded and withdrew, became reserved and gentle. "here I am, ready to-"  
  
"Draco, shut up," Blaise shrieked. "You don't know what the hell you are talking about."  
  
"I know exactly what I'm talking about. I love her, Blaise, not you. That's not her choice and you're making a big mist-"  
  
"Cruciatus" Blaise roared as a blinding stream of light sped from the tip of her wand. Kristin crumpled as pain seized her and threw her into spasms.  
  
"Kristin!" Draco cried, sprinting towards her in terror.  
  
"Don't even think about it!" Blaise turned her wand on him as he watched Kristin's body shake and seizure. "Take one more step and you're next. And this time I may not be as gracious as I was with Kristin."  
  
"Please, Blaise," he pleaded, tears leaving their trails along his cheeks.  
  
He pleas were answered. The cool breeze rustling the curtains became a strong cold gust of wind and Blaise was thrown to the back wall and knocked unconscious. The wind died again. Draco cautiously approached the girl and pried the wand from her hand, at once cracking it in half across his knee and tossing it out the window of Kristin's room. He then rushed to Kristin's side, struggling to calm her chaotic form. She was screaming and bawling in pain as the curse fought within her toned beautiful figure.  
  
He held her close until the seizures had left her and she collapsed into a deep sleep. Holding her body, he realized that the ordeal that had taken place should have waked everyone else in the room with her. He heard the scum on the floor give a small moan as she began to regain consciousness and put her under a sleeping spell to keep her out of his hair for a while. To answer his question, Draco paced the room looking around at the girls sleeping in the beds. They seemed to be soundly sleeping but something was different, just not quite right. He stepped closer touching the arm of Kristin's roommate.  
  
Cold.  
  
Dead cold.  
  
The bitch killed them. His mind raced. She would do it again. Kristin wasn't safe. No one was. Not until Blaise got her way. He had to tell someone.  
  
Kristin's breathing was beginning to regulate itself, still shallow, but better. He wrapped her limp, nearly lifeless body in a fleece muggle blanket to keep up her body heat and carried her into the hall. Despite the dead weight in his arms, he ran. He ran through the night. He ran, not caring about how much trouble he would be in for being out at night. He ran, not caring that a large tabby cat was watching him and began scampering away to tell her owner of mischief in Hogwarts. He ran until he was stopped in his track.  
  
Filch stood before him; Mrs. Norris at his side, purring contentedly.  
  
"Out after dark, Mr. Malfoy," his voice oozed. "I'm sure McGonagall will have fun with you. Follow me."  
  
Draco tilted his tear-stained face to the ground in defeat, and then realized, he would tell her. He found someone to hear his story and who could stop Blaise. He couldn't. Well, he could but he like Hogwarts and feared Azkaban, so he would keep these solutions to himself.  
  
"Wait here," Filch instructed when they had reached McGonagall's office. He walked to get the headmistress while Mrs. Norris kept watch over Draco and his consignment. Kristin moaned slightly and shifted in his arms as Draco pushed the sleek black hair away from her eyes. His eyes filled with tears again as he recalled the story he was about to tell. He still didn't quite understand what had actually happened to Blaise in that room. 'Most likely it was Voldemort, I know if someone put one of the Unforgivables on my daughter I would smite them down, too. Good thing he didn't kill her,' he sighed, 'that would have been 'my' hide.'  
  
"Mr. Malfoy," Professor McGonagall's stern but gentle voice interrupted, "would you care to explain yourself?"  
  
"Yes, ma'am," he replied quietly, looking up at her. He told his story, caressing Kristin's face as she slept soundly and stopping to cry sporadically.  
  
"Oh, you poor dear," she replied quietly, shocked, "You take Kristin and yourself to the infirmary. Dumbledore and I will take care of everything else. Get some rest. I don't want you to stay up all night with Miss Riddle, she'll be alright."  
  
"You said it." Draco was stunned.  
  
"Said what?" He had caught her off guard.  
  
"You called her Miss Riddle. No one calls her that, understandably."  
  
"Did I? Wait, you know about that?"  
  
"Yes, ma'am, she stayed with us for a while after her father died. She doesn't remember me, but we were best friends then, too," he reminisced. "Good night, ma'am."  
  
"Sweet dreams, Mr. Malfoy."  
  
The professor watched Draco carry the still sleeping girl out the door and gave them time to get down the hall before collapsing into her chair in tears. One of her own students killing other students; the situation was unbelievable. She ran to Dumbledore's chambers to awake him with a rap on the door.  
  
"Yes," he replied as he opened the door sleepily.  
  
"You must come with me, Albus. There is a tragedy we must attend to." 


	14. Consequences

A/N: Alright, chapter 14. I'm very disappointed. it's been how long since I posted a new chapter and when I do, I don't even get a response, come on you guys. I love you!!  
  
-----  
  
"May I have your attention please?" The already aged time-worn face of the headmaster looked older to a level of implausibility, stressed and mourning the tragic loss of five members of his school, unaided by the idea that one of their own caused it all. Thousands of innocent eyes, unaware of this loss, attended the elder with undivided- and unexpecting- attention.  
  
Last night a most dire and grave tragedy transpired in our own Slytherin house to our own Hogwarts students, caused by one of our own; in an act of jealously, Blaise Zambini," he paused and inhaled, stifling his own tears, "took the lives of five Slytherin girls. Kristin Campbell remains in the infirmary, while Miss Zambini has been sent by the Ministry of Magic to," he sighed once more, "to Azkaban, where she will be serving her punishment for the use of an unforgivable."  
  
The entire student body wept at the loss. Many knew the girls killed or simply the shock of such a tragedy taking place at Hogwarts shook their emotions, as their 'it could never happen to us' attitudes of innocence were quickly ripped away from them. Harry bolted from his seat to the infirmary to see Kristin.  
  
When he open the door, hate boiled in his veins as he saw Draco Malfoy sitting at her bedside, her hand in his as she slept soundly. His eyes were bloodshot from crying. Harry was unsure whether he wept at the loss of his fellow students, the girl lying in the bed, or the she-devil who brought this pain upon them all.  
  
"Malfoy! What are you doing here? Hasn't she been through enough?" Harry accused.  
  
"Just waiting to see how she was feeling," Draco replied quietly and breathless.  
  
"Well, I'll tell you when I find out," Harry snapped.  
  
"Alright," the blonde agreed. "Thank you." Draco retreated slowly from the room, laying one last long look at Kristin, as a single tear scuttled down his cheek.  
  
Draco walked through the cries of the students and spirits that inhabited the school and halls, yet he walked alone, until Ron and Hermoine were walking toward the infirmary, and, consequently, Draco.  
  
"Malfoy!" Ron started, "I suppose you're mourning the departure of your girlfriend. She'll rot in there for what she did, the little bitch!"  
  
"I only hope she does. I never thought even she would stoop that low, the dirty little wench, but I guess when I told her she had no soul, I may have been right. But, I would appreciate if you would have some sympathy and stop blaming everyone else. The girl who did this is where she needs to be, and we can only hope that those who died rest in peace and that Kristin awakes and doesn't remember a moment of it and can go on living a life free from the same turmoil I suffer at the moment."  
  
"Wait a minute," Hermoine asked, concerned. She transcended the mutual feelings between the two for the past six years and put a hand on his shoulder. "Were you there, Draco?"  
  
"I'm afraid I was. I was trying to stop her," he broke down in tears as Hermoine took him in her arms. "I didn't realize they were dead until I noticed that they didn't wake up, even when Blaise cast the Cruciatus, and Kristin- she was- was screaming- just in so much pain. I knocked Blaise out; I couldn't kill her; that would be stooping to her level. I tried to hold her- Kristin- but she was shaking so wildly in such agony, that I just couldn't take away." He gathered himself. " Then, it occurred to me that her roommates should've woken up in the clash and noise, but they didn't. So, I checked and they were dead. So, before you go accusing me, Weasley, just realize that I saved Kristin's life and would do it again, should she need me to."  
  
"I'm sorry, Malfoy," Ron hung his head in shame, "I didn't know."  
  
-----  
  
Kristin moaned slightly as she awoke, the curse echoing its effects throughout her body. She squeezed the hand holding hers.  
  
"Harry, dear, where's Draco?" she asked.  
  
"He left. How are you feeling?" he leaned forward, concerned.  
  
"Fine. Why did he leave? He told me he wouldn't leave." She sat up, alarmed, but laid back down quickly, grasping her aching head.  
  
"I told him to," Harry confessed. "I'm sorry, Kristin, I didn't know you wanted him here that badly. You know I don't get along with him."  
  
"I know but, Harry, I wanted to thank him," Harry looked at her puzzledly. "Don't you see? He kept Blaise from killing me; he saved my life again Harry."  
  
"Again? Kristin, he's a creep. Wait a second! Why was he in your room in the first place?" He stood up, enraged.  
  
"I don't know, Harry," she remained calm, lacking the energy to do any different. "But he was and he kept Blaise from killing me. Yeah, I'm hurt, but no major damage done. And he's done it before. When you fell out the window, someone pushed me too, but Draco grabbed me. Sit down."  
  
"Kristin," Harry slumped in the chair, head hung low. "Five people died last night. No damage done? How can you say that?"  
  
Kristin gasped as Harry explained to her what Dumbledore had explained to them that morning. She sobbed painfully when he took her in his arms to console her. Soon, they heard a knock on the door when Hermoine and Ron let themselves.  
  
"Are you alright,dear?" Hermoine joined. It was so nice for both of them to finally have a female friend around. In the weeks that Kristin and Harry had been going out, she and Hermoine finally found someone to talk about clothes and the boys and makeup and all the other things Ron and Harry rolled their eyes at. But Hermoine didn't know how to handle this one. Death was one of those ideas that Hermoine couldn't aid. When Harry was dealing with the death of Cedric Diggory in his fourth year, she never knew what to say to him; she left that up to Ron.  
  
"I'll be okay," Kristin responded through her tears. 'It wouldn't be the first time I lost a friend,' she thought. "Harry, I need to find Draco."  
  
Instead, Ron went after him and brought him back. He stepped in the room quietly and unobtrusively, aware of the hatred of his presence.  
  
"Could you leave us alone, please?" Kristin requested, at which Ron, Harry, and Hermoine all left, reluctantly shutting the door behind them.  
  
"What happened, Draco?" she cried into his shoulder. "Why did she do this?"  
  
"She was jealous, Kristin. She thought you were going to steal me from her. Stupid girl, she was."  
  
"Was? You talk like she's gone?"  
  
"To Azkaban. No one knows how long. For the use of an unforgivable and for killing five people. We don't know how she did it. They were all dead, Kristin, the whole time. They were dead from the start. But, Kristin, you're here, and you'll be alright, so let's just focus on that." He brushed the nearly black hair from her face and kissed away her tears. "You survived. You always do." 


	15. A Moment of Truth in a Year of Deception

A/N-Sorry it took so long to update, but it took JKR a while too and look how wonderfully #5 turned out. Happy reading!!!!  
  
-----  
  
"I'm sorry, sir, " Kristin said, "I guess I still haven't gotten a hang of all the power yet."  
  
"Well," Professor Snape replied, "you do have a lot of magic in your blood. But, you have been here nearly a full school year; I had hoped you'd catch on just a little more by now." He was right- Kristin had come back from Christmas break already and the trees has already budded leaves. Yet, she still lagged behind many of her classmates in controlling disasters. "Do you know who may be able to help you? I hate to admit it but Potter may know what you're going through. He did defeat Vold." he trailed off, "Sorry."  
  
"Don't worry about it, sir. I know my father was an evil man. He needed to be stopped. It's just really hard to be around Harry sometimes. And that scar."  
  
"I can imagine." A third person joined the conversation. Kristin spun around.  
  
"Harry! What are you doing here?"  
  
"I heard my name. Voldemort is your father?"  
  
"Yes, " she admitted softly, struggling to keep herself from sobbing. "Harry, don't yell"  
  
"Don't yell? Kristin, your father killed my parents. I had to grow up in that house! You've heard about it! It was all because of your father and you had the nerve to go out with me."  
  
"Yes, I had the nerve. I love you, Harry Potter. I grew up in orphanages all across the world but I knew it was my fate and there was nothing I could do. And I know that everything my father did was wrong."  
  
"So are you, Kristin. You're so wrong! You were wrong to come here, wrong to go out with me, wrong not to tell me, wrong not to realize that it was over before it started."  
  
"You think breaking up with me will bring your parents back? Harry, it won't. Why ruin what we have for the past? It was so wonderful-"  
  
"Why didn't you tell me?" Harry interrupted. Kristin was already in tears but he didn't seem to care. All he was worried about were his answers- things to put his mind at peace  
  
"Ooh, and miss a reaction like this? I can't believe I turned down this opportunity."  
  
"You're a bitch. Do you know that? You can't even be serious when we're talking about something as important as this. This is my entire life we're talking about. The rest of which will be a lot better now that I know who to avoid."  
  
Harry turned on a heel and ran from the room. Kristin just stood there shocked that the love of her life had just walked out on her. Snape reminded her of his presence.  
  
"You had better go after him before he gets himself in trouble."  
  
-----  
  
Kristin walked aimlessly through the halls, hoping to find Harry. She'd been here for a year already but she seemed to be getting lost just trying to get to the common room to see if she could find Hermoine or Ron to see if they could help her.  
  
She turned down a familiar corridor. ' I can't believe Harry reacted that badly. I didn't expect him to be happy about it but I didn't want him to break up with me.' Tears streamed down her face. She turned to realize that the hall she thought was familiar wasn't so anymore. Light was becoming scarce as Kristin looked for somewhere to go. But all was dark, except the brilliant green light glowing at the end of the hall.  
  
"Father?" she called out. She knew that color well. She had dreams of the light. She occasionally saw it flickering in her normally hazel eyes in the reflection of Harry's glasses.  
  
Harry!  
  
'Is he okay?' Kristin worried. ' I hope my father didn't find him before I do.'  
  
"Kristin,'' a voice came from the light. "You are the last person I hoped would worry about a Potter." Kristin could remember that voice from when she was a baby. It was dark and gravelly and after listening to it one knew there were evil thoughts in the mind of its beholder. 'What is he going to do to me now? He knows about Harry and me. We're both dead.' Kristin shook in terror. And Harry knows about Voldemort and me thanks to my stupid mouth!'  
  
"Well." Voldemort continued, "what do you have to say for yourself?"  
  
"I love him." Kristin's conscience screamed at her to stop, but her impulsive nature would not be quenched so easily. "We started to see each other when I got to Hogwarts and I-I-I love him."  
  
"NO DAUGHTER OF MINE LOVES A POTTER!"  
  
"I do," Kristin retorted.  
  
Green flames roared towards her. They danced around her, silently threatening her. She started to run as fast as she could in the other direction but she was cut off by more fire. A dark figure came through the flames from the opposite direction as the light. The flames roared higher and gave off even more heat. Kristin was screaming wildly, waiting for the heat to stop or to finally die.  
  
"Kristin, are you okay?" The figure called. Was it Harry? Was he here to save her? No. His hair was too neat, too. long?  
  
"Draco, what are you doing here? Run! Now! Please!" She screamed.  
  
"Ok." He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and began to run with her through the flames. It was a long time before they reached the other side but finally they found a door. It flung open before them. The two screamed fearing the worst, but Professor Dumbledore appeared before them and ushered them out the door. Kristin stopped for a moment and looked back.  
  
It was all gone. The light. The flames. The voice. Her father. It was all gone. And Harry. She needed to talk to Harry. But first.  
  
"Draco Malfoy? What are you doing here?" She asked again.  
  
-----  
  
ok. so it was kinda short, but give me a break. I'm working here. please r/r 


	16. Furthermore

A/N: sorry if this gets a little sappy, I'm still in mourning of my favorite character in the series; but I'm sure it works out in the bigger picture; ALL POWER TO YOU, JKR!!! By the way. she owns all these characters except for Kristin. (I have to work a disclaimer in there every so often)  
  
-----  
  
"Professor McGonagall," Harry called to the headmistress.  
  
"Yes, Mr. Potter," she replied sternly.  
  
"I need to speak with Professor Dumbledore."  
  
"But Harry"-  
  
"Now, please." Harry was holding back tears. He couldn't stand it any longer. Albus Dumbledore had told him long ago that Lord Voldemort was the last in the line of Slytherin. He never told Harry about Kristin.  
  
"All right." McGonagall sighed. There was no bargaining with Harry. She could tell by that look in his eyes.  
  
The professor led him up the staircase. She told the painting the password (whatchamacallit) and proceded to Dumbledore's office.  
  
"Who's there?" Albus Dumbledore answered when she knocked. She opened the door slightly.  
  
"Mr. Potter wishes to see you, headmaster." McGonagall left at Dumbledore's nod. He gestured Harry to sit down, but he refused.  
  
"Why did you tell me he had a daughter?" he demanded, struggling to keep from yelling. The tears he had been holding back finally came forward.  
  
"I see you found out about Kristin." Dumbledore remained calm.  
  
"Damn right I did!" He yelled. He would have been surprised at his nerve at any other time, but today his sense of shock was all worn out.  
  
"Sit down, Harry."  
  
"I don't WANT to sit down. I want you to tell me the truth. I want to know why you didn't tell me sooner.. Maybe when you found out we were going out. I know you knew about it. Don't you owe it to me? I mean. he killed my parents! I have to live the Dursleys."  
  
"And you killed her only remaining parent. She had to live in an orphanage. She was shuttled from wizardry school to wizardry school the moment that they found our her real last name. Kristin Riddle was not a popular student." The headmaster was still as calm as ever.  
  
"But Kristin Campbell came along and teachers didn't mind," he continued. "She started to have friends, have a life. Until the accidents. Her father never really liked where she was heading. She was a good witch. Obviously her mother's fault. He regretted letting this child into the world and he would cause "accidents" to happen."  
  
Harry had become calm enough to listen over his sobs.  
  
"What kind of accidents?"  
  
"Well," Dumbledore began quietly and with great reserve, "like the accident last year with the candle."  
  
"What accident last year?"  
  
"She never told you?"  
  
Harry shook his head.  
  
"She wasn't in school for a week after the first day of school, because her father found out about you and her kissing in the library."  
  
"What did he do?"  
  
"He took shape in a flame and beckoned her to it. Then it blew up at her. She could have been killed. The burns were very bad. But thank Merlin that Professor Snape walked in when he did and that we have as great a nurse as Madam Pomfrey to pull her out of it. Didn't you wonder where she was?"  
  
"Well. yes, but we had a, kind of, fight that first day, so when she didn't show up in the potions for a week, I kind of thought it had something to do with me. I asked but she'd never answer." His story broke off a little. He paused and then got angry again. "But she kept telling me she loved me. Why didn't she tell me?"  
  
Professor Dumbledore looked at him like he was crazy.  
  
"She loved you too much to tell you. She knew it would upset you. Kristin came to me a lot over the past year and a half. It tore her up inside that you never knew quite who she was or where she came from. But she hid all that. She pretended that she was happy when she was with because she loved you so much." He sighed. "But I guess she loses you anyway. Her father will be happy to hear."  
  
With that, Harry was dismissed.  
  
-----  
  
"Draco, I asked you what you are doing here?" Kristin repeated.  
  
"I heard you screaming. Well, I figured it was you, because the only one these things really happen to are you and Potter so I figured you had the scream that didn't nearly sound as girly." He smiled at her, but she only glared at him for the insult on her boyfriend- or EX- boyfriend at this rate. He took the hint and a serious expression washed once again over his face. "What happened to you?" He asked, tucking a bit of hair behind her ear.  
  
"Can I tell you later? I need to find Harry. He found- um- we got into a fight and I need to find him before he goes and does something stupid," she fretted.  
  
"Yeah, he has those tendencies doesn't he?"  
  
Kristin began to walk away but her strength had been tried in that hallway and now called for a rest as she nearly collapsed on the floor, but Draco led her Snape's room.  
  
"Listen, Kristin, stay here with him; you'll be safer that way," Draco chided her. "I'll go look for Potter."  
  
"Draco," she whimpered, "don't be a git, please."  
  
He kissed her lightly on the forehead. "I'll do what I can." He promised her.  
  
-----  
  
"Potter!" Draco called after the black tousled hair he noticed bobbing down the corridors.  
  
"What do you want now, Malfoy?" Potter snapped back, turning and facing him.  
  
"Listen, I'm not here to make fun of you or yell at you." Potter's stance relaxed but his face remained anxious and interested in what Draco was about to say. "Pott- uh- Harry, Kristin really needs you right now and she cares about you beyond imagination. So, please, just go talk to her and work something out."  
  
"Malfoy, do you even know what happened? There's nothing to talk about. Besides, now you've got that girlfriend you've always wanted." He started back on his way.  
  
"She doesn't want me though." Draco painfully admitted, "She wants you. So I'm going to do whatever I can to make her happy, even if that means talking to you. Please, um- Harry, Kristin can't be alone anymore, especially without YOU. She adores you and doesn't want to lose you. Don't let her, alright?"  
  
"MAYBE SHE SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT OF THAT before SHE LIED TO ME, DON'T YOU THINK? YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON, MALFOY?"  
  
"Listen, Harry, I'm sorry. I'm only trying to help."  
  
"You can't help, Malfoy. She did this to herself and it's not something that can be taken back. I'm sure she wants to keep it a secret so I'll let her tell you what happened, if she ever does. She didn't intend for me to know." A single tear ran down Potter's cheek. Draco knew that he was never meant to see this but had always thought he would be rejoicing at Potter's misfortune. This time, however, it was different. This was serious. Draco always knew how much Kristin cared for this boy but never thought about how the boy must love her. He knew he did. He imagined the emotions that would run through his veins and mind if Kristin would let HIM into her life, into her body and soul, the way she let Harry. He didn't think it was possible but realized he would somehow fall for her even more.  
  
But he had to push these thoughts from his mind, because right now it didn't matter what he wanted.  
  
"Harry-"  
  
"Give it up, Malfoy. Nothing you can say can make me forgive her. Nothing anyone could say. Why am I even talking to you?'  
  
"I'm sorry." Draco hung his head low. What was he going to tell Kristin? "I'm sorry for even trying." 


	17. Always a Morning After

A/N: I don't know. I feel a whoosh of inspiration rushing over me. So I hope no one minds the updating once a week or so.  
  
Disclaimer: you know the drill Kristin and the plot are mine, the rest belongs to Madame Rowling -----  
  
"How did it go?" Kristin gazed at him pleadingly, hazel eyes locked with silver.  
  
"Not well; he just didn't want to hear it, especially from me." Draco took her hands at first until she started crying. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close as weeping shook her entire self. "I'm sorry, Kristin, I know how much you loved him."  
  
He held her like that for a long while until her sobs came in a shorter, more detached form. Then, he led her to her room and called on a house elf to bring her some hot chocolate, before getting up to leave.  
  
"Don't go," she begged. Draco immediately sat back down. "I really couldn't stand to be alone tonight, please." Her hand brushed his and he sat back down on the edge of her bed. Kristin's eyes welled up with tears again.  
  
"Alright," he smiled and kissed her lightly on the forehead, "I'll stay."  
  
-----  
  
Hogwarts was buzzing with gossip of Kristin and Harry's breakup the next day. Especially when she neither Kristin nor Harry showed up for breakfast in the morning.  
  
"Well, of course, she wouldn't come," Pansy snorted, "dumped by a Gryffindor. I think the shame would be enough for her. But the bruises are something worse."  
  
"I really can't believe he hit her!" another girl gasped.  
  
"At least she hit him back!" A Slytherin guy added.  
  
"I've had enough of that!" Draco snorted, leaving his food sitting on his plate and walking away in disgust. He found Kristin in the Slytherin common room. Her beautiful eyes were puffy from crying and not sleeping last night. He lay next to her for three hours before she finally calmed and settled for slumber. Even then, her sleep was restless with many cries in the middle of the night. Draco himself was tired, but knew it would be suspicious if he hadn't returned to his dorm room before his roommates had awoken.  
  
"How are you feeling?" He sat on the arm of her chair and put a hand on her shoulder, squeezing lightly to let her know he was there.  
  
Kristin sighed and leaned her head on his hand. "Tired, betrayed, angry, I don't know. I feel a lot of things right now."  
  
"I'm sure. Look, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but you may want to come to breakfast." Kristin raised her head and looked at him perplexed. "Students gossip and as of right now they are convinced that you are beaten and bruised and Potter is the same. He's not there either."  
  
"Really? You don't suppose something happened to him, do you? Oh no, what if-"  
  
"I'm sure he's alright, Kristin, well, you know what I mean. He probably didn't want to face everyone. Trust me, if anyone knows to avoid prying eyes it's Potter. Please come to breakfast." He took her by the hand and helped her out of the chair. Out of the blue, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him close.  
  
"Thank you, Draco," she whispered in his ear before letting going and hesitantly making her way to breakfast.  
  
-----  
  
"Excellent work, Draco," Lucius Malfoy congratulated. "You've finally gotten her where we want her. We lost her once; it can't happen again- WON'T happen again. Do you understand me?" Draco nodded grimly. "She's a valuable asset to our side. The Deatheaters need her power and spirit to finally bring Lord Voldemort to a power not even Harry Potter can rival, now that she's finally apart from that boy. This will surely credit you enough to join us earlier. Keep up the good work, son."  
  
"Yes, Father," the older man left rapidly, robes and near white hair billowing behind him. Even on the run, Lucius Malfoy made his presence known. Draco flopped, fatigued into the large chair in the Slytherin common room and held his head in his hands.  
  
"Is that it?" Kristin demanded, anger flooding her voice. "That's all I am to you? A task? An iniation? Proof to your father and yourself that you've got what it takes to be a fucking Deatheater?"  
  
"Kristin, no, of course not, you-"  
  
"A Deatheater? Have you no decency? I always expected more from you. I never thought you'd end up like your father, the slimy snake. Well, I won't end up like mine," she was screaming now," I won't be a power-hungry coward, killing innocent children so he wouldn't have to compete with a full-grown, full-strength adult. Or using his own daughter," tears flooded her eyes and covered her cheeks," to do his dirty work or kill and hurt those she loves because they don't believe in reveling in others' misfortunes. Some people, like Harry and Dumbledore, retain strength and power without killing the innocent. Bravery is marked by the strength and decency to do what is right, not ridding yourself of those who threaten that strength. But, possibly, being a Deatheater, that's not an idea you comprehend, is it? I hope you die in Azkaban like the rest of your kind will."  
  
Draco remained silent for a long while, long enough for Kristin to escape up her stairs. He darted after her, taking steps two at a time to catch up with her, gaining quickly on her. She made it to the room and began to shut the door but Draco stopped her, overpowering her and pushing his way into her dorm.  
  
She roomed by herself now in a special section of the house, due to special circumstances, special supervision. She struggled against his strength but he overcame her, holding her to her bed and pinning her in place. Kristin continued to fight but relaxed when she realized it was futile. The tears still came though.  
  
"Now, listen to me," Draco instructed gently in contrast to the firm grip he held her with. "You are most definitely- DEFINITELY- not an initiation or anything of the sort. I've loved you since you came to Hogwarts and my father had nothing to do with that. He came to me later with the idea of using you to restore Voldemort and becoming a Death eater, but he's waiting until I'm out of Hogwarts, giving us time to run away. I would never became a Death eater and surely never submit you to anyone who would cause you any harm." He loosened his grip but remained on top of her.  
  
"I don't want to run, Draco," she sobbed, "I'm sick of running; he always finds me; he doesn't stop, never rests; he'll always look for me, for the same reason you will, as a modus operandi, a vessel in which to unleash his misery upon everyone. I don't want to run."  
  
"Alright," he sat next to her and held her close, "we won't run; we'll talk to Dumbledore. He's always able to help and we'll stay here- together."  
  
"Together, Draco?"  
  
"Well- if it's alright with you, I'd like to stay together. I love being with you, talking to you and I believe we could help each other. We each know things that can help the other and we really need to stick together. We come from different places- well, not all different- but the same problem faces each of us and if we use our different experiences together, we'll be able to think of something."  
  
Kristin had calmed. The tears ceased but she still heaved occasionally as Draco embraced her, shaking with emotions.  
  
"Wait!" she pulled away, " you knew who my father was this whole time and you never told me."  
  
"I've known since we were six," she looked at him puzzledly, "when you lived with my family." Kristin gasped at a segment of her life once forgotten. "You've forgotten, Miss Riddle?"  
  
Kristin giggled lightly at the expression on Draco's face. They'd played together for six months while she stayed with him and his family, but the memories had been lost in the shuffle of house to house, family to family, new life to new life.  
  
"I'm afraid I have," she smiled at him tearfully, "though flashes of a bleach blonde brat pestering me all day flood my mind now that I think of it."  
  
"You must be remembering my father," he joked. Draco kissed her lightly on the forehead, gave her an extra squeeze, before getting up. "I have a potions session with Professor Snape in five minutes; would you care to accompany me?"  
  
"I'd love to." He took her hand to help her up and held it tightly as they made their way to the Potions dungeon.  
  
"Ahhh, my two favorite students. It's truly a pleasure to see you on good terms with each other. It took you long enough."  
  
-----  
  
Kristin leaned on a Potions table, waiting patiently for Draco to finish his session of B. N. E. W. T. Potions (Beyond N.E.W.T.) with Professor Snape. As she gazed at the white-blonde-haired boy crushing dragon tooth, her mind wandered.  
  
She was six and half, nearly seven, watching the same boy playing with her and his mother in their sitting room. Just then Lucius burst into the room.  
  
"Narcissa!"  
  
The woman was startled and pulled both children close to her in a moment of maternal instinct. Kristin relished the warmth and caring in her arms but was also startled by the look of fear and anticipation in Lucius' face and the urgency in his voice.  
  
"They know she's here." He stated. He sounded calm again without the fury or anxiety that he'd let slip before.  
  
"Who?" Narcissa Malfoy pulled Kristin closer as if she were afraid to let go.  
  
"The Ministry. I don't know how they know but they do and if they find her in the raids, we're all in Azkaban. We have to let her go." He hung his head low. Narcissa released Kristin but took her hand as she stood.  
  
"Let her go, Lucius? Like she's a bird or a pet we can't control anymore? She's a little girl, damnit! Where is she going to go? Wandering off into the street? Hoping someone else loyal to her father will find her? She may not be that lucky the next time. What if she finds someone not so loyal? They'll kill her out there, Lucius!!"  
  
Lucius Malfoy kept in voice down, signaling his wife to hush. "We're not just going to leave her. I have homes all set up for her. Mind you, they can't keep her long because we're all facing the same fate but at least she'll have somewhere to stay for a few months at a time."  
  
"So she's just going to shift from home to home for the rest of her life? Maybe we should let the Ministry have her. It would be better than what you have planned." Narcissa chided.  
  
"I've found her homes for the next 4 consecutive years until she starts school and then she's always got somewhere to go on summer breaks." He gazed into the stern eyes of his wife and continued with gentility. "It's all we can do for her or she'll be found and- well- destroyed. She's too powerful a weapon in our struggle and they know that. They won't let her live if they know where she is."  
  
Narcissa held Draco tight as Lucius took Kristin away. Neither of the children knew why Draco's mother was crying or where Kristin was going or how long she was going to be away or why Lucius seemed so disappointed, like he was losing a daughter- or simply a valuable tool. 


	18. Finally a Father Worth Caring For

A/N: YAY!!! Another new chapter!!! Are you all as excited as I am?!?!? Well. I am very excited, if you can't tell-I hope you enjoy!!!  
  
Disclaimer: Same ol' stuff; everything is JKR's except my girl, Kristin and the plot!  
  
-----  
  
"Kristin, are you ready to go?" Kristin looked up at Draco and his extended hand, intended to guide her from the Potions dungeon back to the Slytherin common room in time for curfew.  
  
"Uh- oh yeah- sure" she collected her thoughts and took his hand. "Oh wait! You go ahead. I want to talk to Professor Snape for a little while."  
  
Draco kissed her hand chivalrously and entered the hallway outside the potions room.  
  
"So you finally decided where your loyalties lie, I see." Snape walked by her, seemingly indifferent to her plight, but underneath the façade she sensed his smug attitude telling her that she should have listened to him from the beginning and not wasted a year on the Potter brat.  
  
"I guess that I have. Professor Snape," Kristin wrapped her arms around the professor in a tight embrace, "thank you so much for everything. You've been just like a father to me and I really don't know where I would be without you," She let go and stood back a little, trying to remember a time in her year here at Hogwarts when she had seen the potions master more shocked. He stood there for a little while, composing himself.  
  
"A father?" he asked. The underlying disposition of pride and arrogance were gone from his voice and all that remained was dumfoundedness.  
  
"Thank you and I'm sorry for not listening to you earlier. Well, I have to be off if I want to be back in my room before curfew." She bounded for the door, seemingly unphased by Professor Snape's shocked expression.  
  
"Kristin, wait!" she halted in her tracks and turned to face him. "Where are you going for summer break?"  
  
"Hmmm; well, I'm never really sure of where I'm staying until I show up at the train station and some family is there, waiting for me."  
  
"You mean, you don't have a home at all? Just one family after another?" He asked, even more stunned than he was just a few moments before. "How do THEY know where you're going?"  
  
"Oh, Lucius set it up for me years ago to keep me moving so that the Ministry didn't find me and kill me in fear that I'd up like my father. I stay at two different houses during a summer break, six weeks at a time."  
  
"That's not a proper way for a girl to live, Miss Riddle. I'll have a conversation with Albus first, but I would very much like you to stay with me during your summer holidays. Perhaps after your schooling as well, while you work on a career and getting yourself on your feet. How do you feel about it?"  
  
"Are you serious? I would love it. Thank you. You have no clue how much this means to me," she gave him another before running out the door to tell Draco.  
  
"I may have an idea of what you mean," the professor mumbled as the closest thing he may ever have to a daughter bolted happily from the room.  
  
-----  
  
"What are you so happy about?" Draco asked the bounding girl as she practically skipped to the staircase that would lead them from the dungeons.  
  
"Snape invited me to live with him during holidays!" she exclaimed, practically screaming in delight and wrapping her arms around him.  
  
"Really? That's awesome, Kristin! So no more shuffling from family to family, eh?" he replied, swinging her around in excitement. "Let's talk more in the common room, alright? We're going to be late soon."  
  
Draco put his arm around Kristin's should as they walked together each in their own state of ecstasy: Kristin had finally found a home, a father, a somewhat stable environment where she could make herself a room with real furniture and all because she would return to it when school was done, providing Dumbledore approved; Draco knew where Snape lived and it was close, so he could spend his summer holidays with Kristin. When they reached the Slytherin common room, Kristin kept walking.  
  
"Where are you going?" Draco looked at her.  
  
"My room. You can get up without the stairs without them collapsing and it's less quiet than this place. I'm so excited I don't think I could sit still. I'd go crazy."  
  
Draco couldn't help but agree with her; he'd always hated the common room. It was filled with the likes of Pansy Parkinson, throwing herself at him and Crabbe and Goyle, lost beyond recognition in their own stupidity. Besides, he loved Kristin when she was in these kinds of moods- she was very touchy and affectionate.  
  
"So what exactly happened that you're living with Snape in the holidays?" Draco asked as he sat next to her on her bed.  
  
Kristin told him the story, her body pulsing and nearly shaking with excitement and Draco could feel the energy in the room. Kristin didn't even know if she could yet and she was already this ecstatic, he couldn't even imagine what she would be like if Dumbledore let it happen. She smiled, laughed, and giggled, using her hands to talk and touching his arm and leg a lot when she was trying to prove a point. She got closer and closer to him as she spoke and her hand rested on his arm after a while. Suddenly she stopped talking and kissed him.  
  
-----  
  
'This is it,' Kristin thought as her lips finally met Draco's, just lips, at first, tentatively pressed to his, testing, to see if he really thought of her the way Snape always said he had, but he kissed her back, even pulled her closer so she opened her mouth up to him. Draco's tongue danced with hers excitedly, searching and exploring passionately, knowing all the other was thinking and using it plan where to go next. She ran fingers down his lean, muscular back and settled them on his hips where she moved them back and forth gently along his sides. But just as suddenly as it began, he told her to wait.  
  
-----  
  
"Why wait?" Kristin breathlessly replied to Draco's demand. "What's wrong? Please don't tell me you don't like me anymore. Ooooh, I could kill that Professor Snape. He told me-"  
  
"Kristin," he put a finger to her lips, motioning her to hush, "that's not it. I do really like you and if you kill Snape you've got no where to go on holidays; I may have to give him a good slap for telling you, but that's really not it. I just don't want to be Harry's backup, you know, now that you can't have him you're settling for me. Or worse, Kristin, I don't want to take advantage of you."  
  
"You're not. I made the first move, remember?" She leaned in to kiss him again.  
  
"But you're still not over Harry, I know, and you will regret it when he comes to his senses and you guys are back together, so let's leave it with what happened here and not go further."  
  
Kristin nodded and sat against the head of her bed. Draco, taking that as his cue to leave, started to get up, before she pulled on his robes gently.  
  
"Please stay here. I'm alright now, but I don't think I'll maintain myself when I'm alone."  
  
"I'll get my pajamas," he said as he started to the door. 


	19. Not the Day They Had Planned For

Disclaimer: everyone knows by now that JKR came up with all of my characters except for Kristin, but I shall remind you all for purposes beyond reason. On to chapter 19.  
  
-----  
  
The sun sneaked in through a crack in Kristin's curtains, and Draco knew it was already shaping up to be an impossibly wonderful day. His arms were wrapped snugly around her waist as she slept, and she sighed contentedly when he pulled her even a little bit closer. He inhaled deeply. He always loved her smell and the smell of her room; it was nothing he had ever smelled before, unique and beautiful, but it always let you know she was near or something was hers.  
  
He would love to be hers, to be able to wake up like this every morning, to not have to worry about holidays when she goes away and decides not to talk to him because he's not her boyfriend. He had always thought that he would remain at the sidelines, but incidents like the kiss the night before left him wondering. He began to believe he had a chance with her.  
  
"Good morning, Draco," she stretched far, and Draco watched her muscles ripple slightly under the soft skin on her arms and chest. The tank top she wore fit her snugly and he forced himself to stop staring at her beautiful body.  
  
"Good morning, dear. Did you sleep well?" he leaned on his elbow, laying over her. Her eyes were gorgeous; they were nearly glowing, bright and green, full of sparkle. He'd never seen them like this before- normally they were a cloudy hazel, still as beautiful, just different.  
  
"Gloriously. Like a queen, really." She was smiling wide, happier than he's seen her in a long time, even while she was with Harry. She seemed giddy, like a school girl with a crush. He hoped it was because he was here, but he wasn't quite sure. Maybe it was just the good night's sleep. Or a realization that she had a place to call home. She was having a small streak of good fortune and he hoped he was part of it. "And you?"  
  
"I slept very well, thank you. I think you've got it better up here than anyone else- well, besides the ass for a father bit- it's very quiet and peaceful."  
  
"It's lonely." Her eyes lost the light Draco had found so mesmerizing and became hazel again. He was shocked by the transition, but hoped it didn't show in his face. Kristin didn't open up often and he didn't want to scare her off if she was about to. "Kind of a hell, really. This constant reminder that you're not supposed to be here, that you were supposed to be dead with all the rest of them, that you weren't even supposed to make it past nursery school, but here you are and because you are, five other people aren't. Yeah, I guess, peaceful is the word for it."  
  
Draco simply nodded and sighed. When Kristin got in moods like this it was nearly impossible to persuade her otherwise. He had tried once; tried to convince her that it was fate- part of a larger plan- but she shut him down with yet another snide pessimistic remark about how only the weak rely on fate- the truly powerful make their own destiny. "Be that way," he always told her, hoping this wouldn't be the time she decided to listen to him. At that she would smile weakly at him and change the subject.  
  
Today the subject was Snape and what could be the start of something wonderful for Kristin, who had waited so long for something of the sort. But Draco knew and was pretty sure Kristin knew as well that this would come easily; maybe from Dumbledore, but not from her father, who would stop and nothing to destroy her little by little until she had no choice but to cross to his side.  
  
But for now, she glowed gloriously in her ecstasy and relished every moment of happiness time granted her.  
  
-----  
  
Her moments of happiness, as usual, wouldn't last long. The rain started slowly drizzling outside and began pouring before the hour was through. Thunder shook the grounds and lighting blazoned the night sky. Kristin got up from her bed and attempted to shut the windows when a bolt of lighting found a destination in her. She crumpled to the floor in a heap and Draco smelled the burning, hoping he could do something for her. He approached her cautiously; he didn't care too much if he got hurt but he couldn't do anything to help her if he was so badly injured that he needed help himself.  
  
He could feel the energy just being near her and knew to back away and get the professionals, but he also knew that this was a different bolt of lightning. Draco had seen a friend of his mother's electrocuted by wire when she was in a muggle house; she didn't know how they worked and tried to prod it with a butter knife. Kristin didn't look the same- she lacked the same shock value; she collapsed as if all the life had been sucked from her and she was simply some bones covered in skin in a heap on her bedroom floor.  
  
He ran out of the room just like that bolt of lightning, desperate to get help for her before she was helpless. He didn't know how and remember the journey, but he arrived at the door of the infirmary and knocked loudly, only needing to say her name before the nurse ran with him back to Kristin's room.  
  
"She's not here, Draco!" Madame Pomfrey chided. "What's going on?"  
  
"She was struck by lightning. It came right through the window. I don't know what happened exactly but she collapsed and she was right here on the floor and I didn't want to touch her and get shocked myself so I came and got you so I don't know what-"  
  
"He finally got her," a deeper voice entered the room which seemed to be eerily glowing.  
  
"Professor Snape," the nurse sighed, "what is going on here?"  
  
"Her father came for her. I can see it all around can't you? In the storm- "  
  
"What storm?" Madame Pomfrey interjected.  
  
"Exactly, her father staged a storm outside her window. As soon as she got close enough to it, am I right Draco, he struck her with lighting. I hate to say this Draco but this wasn't ordinary lightning, as is nothing the Dark Lord uses to victimize people. It depleted her of her soul. Then he came back for the body. It's a good thing you didn't touch her, son. The void inside her self would've come after you, and taken your being to replace its own - that's when this sort of thing gets messy."  
  
"So she can be fixed?" the lovestruck boy pleaded.  
  
"If we can find her, we need Dumbledore's help, of course," he hesitated shortly, but said the words Draco knew and feared he would hear, "probably Potter's too.  
  
Draco nodded and Snape assigned him the task of enlisting Harry in the search for the girl, while the professor would notify the headmaster. Draco ran as fast as he could to Gryffindor house and argued furiously with the fat lady in the painting to let him through the door. Finally convinced, the lady let him pass into the Gryffindor common room where he found Harry with Hermoine and Ron, sitting by the fire. The two boys were playing a game of wizard's chess while the girl entertained herself with a book that seemed larger than she was.  
  
"Malfoy," Harry looked up, diverted by the swift and urgent manner in which the interloper made his way through their common room. "How did you-"  
  
"This is not the time, Potter," Draco interrupted, "I need you help. Kristin needs you."  
  
"I told you before, Malfoy-"  
  
"He took her back, Harry!" Draco screamed, infuriated by the boy's insensitivity, "Voldemort came and got her, stole her away from me while I stood there. I don't care how you feel right now because I really hope she doesn't get back together with you when we save her anyway. But Voldemort is feeding off her power and instability as we speak. I would love the girl of my dreams back with me and I don't think you would like to fight an even stronger more powerful Dark Lord with the blood of the innocent girl you once loved running through his veins. So right now we both need to calm down and save her, you for your reasons and me for mine." He became suddenly quiet and reticent; his voice lost the power and vehemence with which he pled his case, and became a small whimper. "Please Harry. I know we haven't gotten along ever, but I can't stand to lose my best friend three times. I'm begging you."  
  
Tears streamed from his eyes, leaving the three Gryffindors dumbfounded and with no choice but to help him and Kristin. 


	20. On the Other Side of Forbidden

A/N: Wow! Has it ever been a long time since I've updated! I had to reread my OWN STORY!!! That's bad! But fear not! I am updating... and in case you forgot, everything belongs to JKR except for Kristin and the plot... Read on... sorry to keep you waiting.  
  
-----  
  
The four worried children scurried back in Kristin's room, meeting with Snape and Dumbledore; all six puzzled on what to do next, some more so than others.  
  
"Where do you suppose we start, Headmaster?" Draco was the first to ask, not wasting a moment in the search for her.  
  
"Well, Draco," Dumbledore began with the same anxiety, only subdued into a position of immediacy, "we're going to do a spell to track the wand—Voldemort's wand—that cast the spell to caused all this. Harry, it will work most accurately with your wand, being its twin and all." He guided Harry through the steps until the wand starting pulling Harry out the door and through the hallway, with the other five following close behind. Snape sneered as he watched Granger and Weasley trail behind their leader, but he knew Potter wouldn't help without those two, most of their rule breaking was committed in tandem.  
  
The spell led them out of the castle and through the Forbidden Forest; Harry feared what could happen during this meeting with Voldemort, given the mortality rate of the last few; Ron kept an extra eye out for any Acromantula that may be lurking; Hermoine only hoped that this wouldn't cost her points from Gryffindor. Draco, Snape, and Dumbledore constantly worried for Kristin's safety; they all shared the same concern that his brutality may be worsened on his own blood.  
  
His own blood—she had everything he ever needed, the proper rejuvenator to regain himself after that last bitter defeat, his own strength, better than anything that old unicorn's blood would ever do for him. It must have foiled him completely when she turned against him, avoided following in his path, now she was in his control and if he fed off her strength, the world would lose it's only true defense against the Dark Lord, the only person who could match his full power and strength—his only daughter.  
  
----  
  
It was nearly dawn when they reached the opposite end of the Forbidden Forest. None of the students had ever been out this far, even if they all had ventured out into the Forest. The dismal low-hanging trees, dark, root- covered ground and strange screeches cleared into an even more dismal swamp surrounded by caves, crannies, and even more unexplained screeches and gurgles. They were near their destination. The energy of Voldemort's power hung in the haze around the swamp, permeating their skin and making their hairs take a stand from their arms and legs, their hearts beating faster as they realized that they had been led to a lair of pure evil. A dim green fire burned from within three of the caves.  
  
Dumbledore swiftly and quietly instructed Harry how to end the spell he had cast so they would not be pulled directly into Voldemort's grasp; this would take a great deal of strategy and proper timing that they couldn't quite configure yet. Upon Dumbledore's reluctant order, the six split into three pairs to speed up the amount of time in which they found the girl. Snape and Granger would take the left cave, Dumbledore and Ron the middle and Harry and Draco would try their luck at the last orifice. Each member of the search was given a charm that would allow the other two pairs to find them if they found her or Voldemort or any other trouble and they set out to find Kristin.  
  
-----  
  
A/N: Sorry about the length, I guess I'm a little wary of what tends to be the greatest scenes of the originals. But at least it's an update, right? I just hope you all didn't forget how to review (the little button right here, below this to your left... just in case) 


	21. Marching onto War

A/N: Okay, here we go again! Just remember everything besides the plot and Kristin belongs to J. K. Rowling. Now that we have that formality out of the way, let's begin!  
  
-----  
  
"Lumos"  
  
They all lit their wands dimly, simply giving themselves a little more light than the dim green emanating from the caves into which they were preparing to enter. With a few final words of advice, Dumbledore led Ron, who followed reluctantly into what he feared would be the most dangerous situation of his life, and the other pairs proceeded on their chosen paths.  
  
-----  
  
Snape and Hermoine said not a word to each other as they entered the dank cave. The damp, chilled, humidity of the swamp permeated the cave as well, but it lacked the openness of the outdoors. The air was thick, stale, and stifling as Hermoine took deep breaths simply to get enough air to stay standing. Professor Snape glared at her occasionally when her breath was too noisy for his taste, but still chose not to ignite her fiery speech, now was not the time. She took his glares with stride and begrudgingly silenced her breathing every time.  
  
She cringed to think why they were assigned together. He, the head of Slytherin, a house that valued purebred wizardry; she, the most prominent muggle-born in the school. She may ask Dumbledore about this later, but that could wait.  
  
She took a step farther to avoid some standing water and nearly tripped on the moss that awaited her. Snape grabber her by the back of her robes and kept her from making a ruckus, pulling her up and onto a dry patch of ground without a sound.  
  
The green light never grew brighter, only continued to glimmer in a place which always seemed just beyond their view.  
  
-----  
  
Dumbledore led Ron through the cave, tempted to cast a charm that would allow them to walk on dry ground but reluctant to do anymore magic than for what the situation called, anything that Voldemort could trace could cost them many valuable resources or the entire mission.  
  
The headmaster kept a cautious eye on Ron as the child struggled to keep himself from crying out every time he noticed a shadow or spider or anything outside made a sound. The youngest Weasley brother would need t o build up that courage in the next year or two if he hoped to make a successful career as an Auror, which Dumbledore suspected he would.  
  
But the Weasley's future plans could wait, as he watched the green light in front of him glow steadily immutable just out of view, always just out of view.  
  
-----  
  
Draco hurried into his designated cave as soon as he saw Dumbledore leave the group to begin his search. He wanted to run, but knew better in the damp swamp and the even damper cave. He struggled to breathe as he entered and was forced to stop, take a deep breath from outside and wait for Harry to catch up. He wished that boy would hurry, but knew that Harry must dread this.  
  
He'd never thought about that before. How Harry must hate going on trips simply to find the man who may end his life one-day. Draco had heard about the prophecy from his father, how one could not live while the other survived. How burdensome it must be to know that at the end of each meeting, one will not be standing, while the other walks away. He has to wonder each time whether he will be the one to walk away from it all for a one more year. Draco turned to look at him now following close behind the Slytherin, amazed to see the masked fear in his eyes. The green light they faced reflected in his green eyes and Draco saw Kristin once more in his mind.  
  
She looked dead as she lay crumpled on the floor, just before her father stole her away from him. He could only imagine the horrible things he would do to her, maybe already had done to her. It was nearly morning now and the Dark Lord had retreated to his cave nearly five hours ago. How much evil could he have worked in five hours? It only takes an instant for Aveda Kadavra to kill its victim, she has been in his presence for much too long.  
  
Harry met Draco's eyes for an instant, wishing that he could travel just a bit slower. He'd never met Voldemort from this side before. Harry often wondered if Draco ever spoke to the man that killed Lily and James Potter and so many others. Lucius Malfoy was a very powerful Deatheater and meetings with the master would be common, he imagined, but did he ever greet the child, ever entice him to join the fight against good as soon as he was out of Hogworts? Would Voldemort recognize him when he saw his face and know that Draco wasn't on his side anymore? At least, that is what Harry hoped. He didn't need to be walking this trail with a spy.  
  
The green light ahead of them grew brighter and brighter as they neared it. They could feel energy all around them. They considered using the charms to notify the others but weren't sure if they saw the same change in the dim grotesque twinkling and chose to wait a little longer before they called for help.  
  
-----  
  
Ok... so it's a little longer than last time. I'm getting there. 


	22. A Not So Grand Finale

The light began to grow warmer and brighter and Harry and Draco trekked further into the cave. They could barely see anything with the brilliant green erupting in many different directions around them. It was no longer the steady glow to which they had grown familiar, it had grown to what looked like a slow explosion with trails of light cascading away from the boys destination. They darted different sparks, not knowing what would happen if it hit them. They could only wonder as they saw it clobber against the rock walls.  
  
It wasn't until one of the sparks singed a small hole through Harry's robe that the boys decided they could be on the right trail rather than the other two groups. Draco repeated the spell Dumbledore taught them and saw a tiny flash within the normally clear, dark orb.  
  
"So, what do you we do now?" Harry whispered.  
  
"Go on, I suppose," Draco replied, barely audible, "I don't think we can wait for the rest to get here, but I also don't feel strong enough to face him."  
  
"If I've learned anything from our meetings, we can beat him if we don't become separated. So, no matter what happens make sure that we are in sight of each other.  
  
"Like, working together? You sure you're up to working to with me?"  
  
"This one time, perhaps. Is your wand ready?"  
  
Draco nodded admiring Harry's newfound fearlessness. Maybe this kid wasn't so bad after all... doubt it.  
  
"Let's go," the young hero gestured to Draco and the unlikely pair traveled further toward their target, hoping their four allies would follow quickly behind.  
  
-----  
  
The blinding green light surrounded them on all sides now, forcing them to follow the wall in order to keep themselves from accidentally turning around and walking back toward the swamp. Harry's scar burned and the spark-storm had ebbed, but Draco was forced to close his eyes periodically and simply follow the wall to give his eyes a break. Harry kept his open and alert but caught himself squinting while his pupils struggle to adjust.  
  
The stone wall was refreshing cold in the blinding heat of the hideous light and Draco wondered how much more he could take. Harry, however, looked dauntless in his pursuit. He'd never seen him like this before. Sure, he'd always seen the aftermath—chaos, destruction and the sole survivor walking away from the rubble, but never the true brave that went into avenging his parents' death. This wasn't just about his parents anymore, Draco remembered. Last year, his father gloated about finally ridding themselves of Sirius Black, Harry's godfather.  
  
Maybe power wasn't the only reason Voldemort wanted Kristin, maybe his goal included breaking Harry's spirit by killing everyone who ever loved him, who ever got close to him.  
  
The cave went pitch black and cold surrounded them now. All around them was silent besides their own footfalls. Neither of them could see while their eyes adjusted to the sudden dark.  
  
Finally they saw stars above them. The cave walls still loomed ahead on both sides in the crisp moonlight before they came to a final clearing.  
  
They could distinguish shapes moving in the magical lights that surrounded the clearing and Harry and Draco searched for a place to hide while they assessed the situation.  
  
They finally found concealment in a small alcove along the side of the ceiling-less wall. Kristin's limp body lay on a stone alter in the middle of the clearing, one frail arm hanging over the side, closed eyes turned to face their hiding place. Draco's body eased slightly as her chest raised and lowered with her still-living breath. He hadn't taken her life yet.  
  
"Master," another man asked, "how long do you plan to keep her this way?"  
  
Harry's biting look at Draco said he knew whose voice that was.  
  
"Just until I can find an adequate container for her soul." The Dark Lord hissed. "It cannot live without a body for long, but as long as she's here we must wait for the correct body."  
  
"They will surely come looking for her." The man replied.  
  
"Your son did seem very concerned. Smart boy, though, stayed away while I worked. You trained him well."  
  
"Draco? Why was he there?"  
  
"Well, Lucius, though I'm not a gossip, I believe your boy loves her."  
  
"What would be an adequate body, Master?" the elder Malfoy curbed their potential digression, seeming nearly disappointed in his son.  
  
"A human preferably, someone who wouldn't be missed, a wizard who won't be harmed by her infinite magical powers, but isn't trained well enough to use them. Kristin has grown too powerful in her training and must be disposed of properly."  
  
Draco stifled a small gasp at his malice but later realized that he didn't expect much more from him. Terror built inside of him now. The Dark Lord he could vanquish while helping Harry but now Draco would be forced to face his father. Lucius Malfoy trained his son since he was old enough to hold a wand; his ties in the Ministry allowing his son to escape penalty under the Underage Sorcery laws. Now Draco struggled to think of a weakness her father didn't know and upon which he wouldn't prey. Even after their practice sessions, Draco often required healing and repairing spells for his battered body, he could only imagine how much damage his father could do in full-fledged battle where the blatant indifference toward his own son would take precedence to any bond they may have forged.  
  
A small tear made its journey from Draco's eye, down his face to the rocky ground below.  
  
-----  
  
Lucius's well-trained eyes caught the quick reflection of light in the darkness but it quickly fell and vanished upon the ground. As he watched his master turn away and observe the unconscious girl, Lucius slowly crept toward the alcove in which the tow boys waited to take Kristin back to Hogwarts.  
  
"Inperceptivum"  
  
Draco silently cast the spell his father had just taught him over Christmas break. It took him four days of relentless practicing simply to dim, but by the time he returned to Hogwarts, he could not be seen if didn't want to be. He looked over to make sure the spell worked on Harry as well and was pleased to not seem him—until he noticed him crawling along the wall behind Lucius.  
  
Draco rose and noiselessly walked toward Harry. He felt strange, blatantly walking—not crouching or crawling, but walking—in what would be full sight of his father and Voldemort were he visible.  
  
He covered Harry's mouth and urged him to crawl back to their hiding place, but the Boy-Who-Lived couldn't understand the body language of someone he couldn't see and remained still, to avoid Lucius's glare.  
  
"Inperceptivum"  
  
Draco once again whispered the spell, pointing his wand at Harry as he vanished in time to remain unseen to Lucius Malfoy.  
  
As the older blonde man made his way to the origin of a whisper, Harry and Draco dodged him by only a few inches.  
  
"Master," another man entered the clearing; Draco recognized him as Crabbe's father and her carried a small sleeping child in his arms. "Here is the body you asked for."  
  
"Finally, the process can begin."  
  
Draco gasped, knowing shortly that the girl on the table would be dead or worse—living without her soul.  
  
Everyone worried of the dementor's power to rob victims of their souls and here was a group of malicious, power-hungry bastards with only a couple of kids to stop them.  
  
Lucius turned his head toward the sound and Draco met his eyes. He was suspecting something more and more.  
  
"Petrificus totales"  
  
Draco looked at Harry as the hero cast his first spell. Lucius Malfoy and the elder Crabbe froze in place with the young boy still asleep in his arms.  
  
"Ah, Harry Potter," Voldemort hissed, "Don't think you're cute little invisibility spell will work on me. I can see you. Good evening to you as well, young Malfoy."  
  
Upon their acknowledgment, Draco undid their spell, saving his power for something more effective in what could be the last duel he would ever face.  
  
-----  
  
"I thought you were done with my daughter."  
  
"That may be, but I'm sure as bloody hell not done with you, Voldemort," Harry nearly spit out his last word as anger boiled inside of him. He wanted to end this now, to rid himself of this obstacle before used Kristin to become unstoppable.  
  
He seemed unaffected by Harry's threat and turned his focus to Draco.  
  
"And I thought your loyalty was with me. Do you realize what we can accomplish with her strength? No puny boy with a vendetta could stop us anymore."  
  
"There is no us, Lord Voldemort, someone has finally shown me the hideous stunts you pull. No more. I have changed alliances." Draco met his eyes, deep and endless. He could only imagine how may saw those voids as their final image.  
  
"It's a shame you won't be here to tell your father. I'm sure this is some right of passage for you." Voldemort was close to him now.  
  
"Expelliarmus"  
  
Harry's spell caused the want to fly from Voldemort's hand as he raised it to punish Draco's disloyalty.  
  
From his stunned position, the young Malfoy scrambled to get the tiny piece of wood and in a moment he had snapped the wand across his knew as the dark old wizard leapt after him.  
  
"Leave him alone, master," Lucius Malfoy interjected, unfreezing upon Harry's latest spell, "He's mine."  
  
Draco looked with terror at his father as he snapped Voldemort's wand once more and set the four pieces in Harry's hand.  
  
The elder Crabbe began once more to the altar with the small boy when Harry noticed that he wasn't sleeping—he was dead. Kristin's soul and power would live in the body of a boy not even old enough to attend school.  
  
"Where'd you find him?" Voldemort asked his faithful servant.  
  
"St. Agnes, he's an orphan."  
  
"Perfect. You have served me well."  
  
The servant bowed slightly to his master and walked toward the cave entrance, out of sight.  
  
"It's just us now," Harry sneered, anxious to rid himself of Voldemort soon. "None of your servants, none of your cronies, besides him, "he nodded at Lucius, "and he seems kind of busy right now." With a simple spell, Voldemort's wand burst into flame in Harry's hand, as he watched it burn to ash.  
  
"Well, it looks like I'm defenseless now," Voldemort retorted before chanting a few words under his breath.  
  
"Animas extricatum"  
  
Harry watched a ghostlike mist escape from Kristin's mouth and rise into the air above them.  
  
"Crucio"  
  
Harry flew back as sparks flew toward Voldemort. He crumpled to the ground as Harry lay only a few feet away. He quickly reached for his wand before the Dark Lord could finish writhing.  
  
"Aveda Kedavra"  
  
Another flash of light and Harry's world went black.  
  
-----  
  
"Draco, I can't believe you would do this to us, after all that I have taught you. What happened?" Lucius pleaded.  
  
"Kristin finally taught me more; she taught me all of the horrible stuff she's been through, which you put her through. How could you do that to her?"  
  
"We need her," the father replied coldly. "Only when we have her power can Voldemort return to his rightful place."  
  
Draco watched the elder Crabbe place the child on the altar next to Kristin. "So you're just going to kill her? And then what?" Draco asked flabbergasted.  
  
"Her soul will live on in the body of the child, not her intelligence, mind you, but her power without the training to use it against her father. Then, when we have gathered his followers and retain the proper protection, the Dark Lord will harvest the soul once again and return to full power." Lucius grinned sadistically. "It's really too bad that you'll miss it. It will be quite the event."  
  
"Crucio"  
  
Draco collapsed, screaming out in pain that he had only felt once before, as a small child at the hands of his still merciless father. Still writhing, he reached for his wand.  
  
"Petrificus totales"  
  
He watched his father stand motionless, wand raised ready to strike once again.  
  
"Harry," he screamed for help, for release from this infinite pain, but looked over to see Harry and Voldemort unconscious on the ground and a shady mist hanging in the air above the alter.  
  
He lay there screaming for some time before the pain and exhaustion took him to the unconscious. 


End file.
